Last Friday, a cyberattack shut down some popular websites such as Twitter and Amazon. This was the result of an attack on Dyn, a DNS provider that helps direct Internet traffic. DNS is akin to a digital phone book. When you visit a website, your computer checks with a DNS provider to learn where on the Internet to find that website. Last week’s attackers overwhelmed Dyn with traffic, impeding its ability to work.
The next attack could be much more serious, affecting banks or other vital services.
The attack against Dyn was a DDoS, or distributed denial of service attack, meaning that millions of devices connected to Dyn’s servers simultaneously, blocking legitimate traffic. Such attacks are difficult to stop because they come from many places at once, and as more connected devices are used online, more devices are available for use in similar attacks.
Elizabeth Harper at Techlicious suggests ways you can help to stop the next cyberattack here.
