Denial of Service attacks (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS), have been around for many years, but only in the past few years have the frequency and magnitude of these attacks increased. They are a significant problem because they can shut an organization off from the Internet for extended periods of time and little can be done to stop them. DoS attacks occur when computer resources become unavailable to legitimate users after being exhausted by false requests for information (Houle and Weaver 1).

This research paper is a comprehensive look at DoS attacks, including information about their history and development, how to detect them, and what measures should be taken to prevent large amounts of damage.

History

The first documented DoS activity dates back to 1999. The methods and vulnerabilities are constantly changing, but the result is always the same. The following are some of the more important...