Defending against DDoS attacks using Open Source Software

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks represent a major security problem for every internet user. A defense system against a DDoS attack should be able to detect these attacks and quickly respond in order to stop the flooding of the victim network. A DoS attack can also be created by the high demand of users in a popular website. This is why it is equally important to recognize the legitimate traffic and keep providing the service to these users. For a DoS attack we can notice the one-to-one relationship between the attacker and the victim, therefore it might not be necessary to have any extra help since the situation depends only on two people. It is a win-lose situation. In the case of a DDoS attack the relationship clearly has an advantage for the attacker: an N-to-one relationship, where N is the number of attackers and one is the victim. In this scenario there is no win-lose situation for the victim, hence it raises the need for a Distributed Defense System against DDoS attacks. Current solutions are only affordable by big companies or people who have thousands of dollars to spend monthly for such protection [Table 1]. The proposed defense against DDoS attacks in this document is open source based, because it is intended to be an affordable defense for every internet user who requires to be protected. Every internet user should have the right to be protected against both DoS and DDoS attacks, especially when the internet has become a high medium of communication.