Teaming Up Against Denial of Service

Teaming Up Against Denial of Service

Jayson Dazo

CMGT/441

January 27, 2012

John Rogers

Teaming Up Against Denial of Service

The world of information technology is witnessing a historical shift towards cloud computing. Despite being relatively new on the world stage, cloud computing has been serving major companies for several years. Cloud computing centralizes company information and applications to an off-site and secure location to eliminate the need for local servers and associated infrastructure. This central location is accessible by any of the company’s end devices from the cubicle work station to a delivery drivers tablet PC. In addition to removing localized servers, the associated maintenance, from general cleaning to software upgrades, is also eliminated.

While software and hardware maintenance and storage concerns are being handled off-site, client companies are allowed to focus resources to other needs. What is implied is the inherent trust that a company must have in relinquishing data to an outside party. Companies like 3M, Boeing, even NASA, have to trust that the host providing the cloud environment is giving due diligence to matters of maintenance, process improvement, and security. Just like an electrical grid, when company employees plug into the cloud, they expect it to just work.

This new frontier in data accessibility is not immune to malicious programs and numerous attempts to hack into information. Distributed Denial-of-Service' (DDoS) is one such attack that concerns the IT world because it not only renders a target web site unavailable, but also has the ability to overload servers, such as the ones that contain the cloud. The attacks are numerous and fast, making it difficult for the host to combat and debilitating for the client company. In this age where information is as much a commodity as money, if not more, businesses are now scrambling to counter the threat. In some cases, businesses like Alcatel-Lucent...