Where internet crime is concerned, one of the better-known variances is hacking. Despite its prevalence in the digital age, the average person is not aware of what exactly “hacking” means or involves.
While many companies and individuals deal with the consequences of being hacked in California and across the United States, understanding what goes into a hack can be difficult. One of the most common varieties of hack is a DDoS attack. According to VoIP Shield, “DDoS” stands for “distributed denial-of-service” attack and is aimed at interrupting a successfully running network.
Generally, a hacker who is trying to pull off a DDoS attack will try to flood the network with false traffic in order to overwhelm it. A network that is undergoing a DDoS will find that legitimate users of the network are not able to access it. For a more physical example, a DDoS attack can be likened to a bunch of loiterers standing in front of a store, blocking traffic from legitimate consumers. A DDoS attack ends with the system going entirely offline, which event will distract IT personnel who must attempt to get the system back up and running.
These attacks are formulated in a variety of ways: the actual functions that a DDoS attack will pinpoint depend on the nature of the virus. The general idea, however, is for the attack to be a ploy. While the IT personnel are wrangling with the attack, hackers will then attempt to extract whatever information they are trying to gain from the hack. Often, the hackers are attempting to get financial information from the attacks.
This variety of hacking is one of the more common types prosecuted in state and federal criminal courts of law.