Defeating distributed denial of service attacks

A brief introduction to network weaknesses that DDoS attacks exploit; the technological futility of addressing the problem solely at the local level; potential global solutions; and why global solutions require an economic incentive framework are given.

Abstract

Security experts generally acknowledge that the long-term solution to distributed denial of service attacks is to increase the security level of Internet computers. Attackers would then be unable to find zombie computers to control. Internet users would also have to set up globally coordinated filters to stop attacks early. However, the critical challenge in these solutions lies in identifying the incentives for the Internet's tens of millions of independent companies and individuals to cooperate on security and traffic control issues that do not appear to directly affect them. We give a brief introduction to: network weaknesses that DDoS attacks exploit; the technological futility of addressing the problem solely at the local level; potential global solutions; and why global solutions require an economic incentive framework.