The internet has made our lives better by improving social interactions and creating new ways of doing business. However, not everyone on the internet is a model citizen, and on a few occasions, they will hit you with a DDoS attack. A DDoS attack is a cyber-attack where the perpetrator seeks to make a service unavailable to intended users by temporarily disrupting the services of a host.
So, how do you know if you’ve been DDoSed? The key to knowing you have been DDoSed is the length of time the service is down. Sometimes online services and websites can be down due to legitimate traffic, but it is usually resolved within hours. If the service is down for a day or two, it could be a DDoS attack. Online gaming services used by Xbox and PlayStation gamers when DDoSed can stop responding and make gaming difficult and intermittent.
Another sign of a DDoS attack is the length of time it takes you to access a website. It usually takes a few seconds to load a website, depending on the speed of your internet. However, if you try accessing a website and it takes minutes or hours before you can load a single page, you might be experiencing a DDoS attack.
It is not easy to differentiate between legitimate traffic or a DDoS attack. A DDoS attack can have devastating effects, and some people are offering DDoS attacks as a service to anyone who wants to attack a specific site. Read on to find out what happens if you get DDoSed, whether you can get DDoS on PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, and how long DDoS attacks last on Xbox?
What Happens If You Get DDoSed?
DDoS attacks are very easy to carry out, and the most successful sites are more likely to suffer DDoS attacks regularly. Depending on the nature of the DDoS attack, several things might happen; therefore, it is important to prepare on how to deal with them.
One of the most common effects of a DDoS attack is that websites and online services become unavailable to many users. A DDoS attack could also lead to server and hosting issues. If you continue to face regular DDoS attacks, your website will become vulnerable to other attacks such as hacking. You will lose time and money by repairing damages caused by a DDoS attack.
Perpetrators of a DDoS attack usually target websites to make them unavailable for their intended users. You will not conduct any business through your website, and the consumers of your service will go without it until you get the site working again. If you do not fix your site within a short time, it will affect your SEO. If users search your websites and keep seeing the 502 bad gateway error, you might lose your search rankings.
Sometimes, a website can be a target of numerous DDoS attacks from either competitors or political activists. If your site has suffered regular DDoS attacks, you might end up having issues with your server or host. Some hosting providers will give you tools to help prevent DDoS attacks. If you do not have any tools to prevent a DDoS attack and you have shared hosting, the attacks on your websites might also affect other sites on the same server. Your hosting provider might decline to offer you hosting services if you keep getting DDoS attacks to save other websites on their servers.
When facing a DDoS attack, you will use all your systems to get your site back online. Sometimes, a DDoS attack can put out your security systems, and hackers may take advantage of that situation and access your site through the back door. When you get your site back online, you might opt to fight the hackers who have taken control of it and in the process, paralyze your site completely.
Sometimes, a hacker will stay connected to your site and gain personal information from all your users. If you are facing a DDoS attack, ensure that you secure your website before attempting to restore it.
A lot of websites earn money through advertisements, sponsorships, and selling services or products. For you to keep earning money through your website, users should be able to visit it. If the website is unavailable for days, no users can see the websites or buy your products or services. Therefore, you will lose money as long as the website is down. You will also lose money trying to repair or restore the site, especially if you did not have any backups.
DDoS attacks keep evolving; therefore, you need to be on high alert to protect your website from frequent attacks. Technology keeps improving, and attackers will not use the same tactics they used five or ten years ago. Companies such as Kaspersky are coming up with new ways to defend their websites and servers from DDoS. It is also essential to ensure that your business partners have good security systems. If the attackers cannot flood your website, they might find the weakest link affiliated to you.
Can You DDoS on PlayStation 5 (PS5) or PS4?
The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are video game consoles developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment and can play various video games online and offline. If you own a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, you can connect it to online services such as the PlayStation Network and PlayStation Now to play online video games.
You can DDoS on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 through online gaming services such as the PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Now. Players using PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 connected to the internet will have a difficult time logging into their accounts.
Individuals or groups carry out DDoS attacks on online gaming platforms with different motivations, such as gaining an unfair advantage in ranked games. The PlayStation network is always a target for DDoS attacks, especially by criminal hackers and political activists.
When it comes to a DDoS attack, someone can target your device if you can connect it to the internet. You can connect your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 using an Ethernet cable. You can then log in to your PlayStation network account and carry out various activities such as playing online video games, purchasing video games through the PlayStation Store, and watching movies or television shows.
In 2014, the PlayStation network was crippled by a DDoS attack making online gaming unavailable for hours. The hacking group known as “Anonymous” took credit for the attack claiming they were showing the vulnerabilities in Sony’s systems.
Perpetrators of DDoS attacks on PlayStation Network have cited several reasons to support their actions. The hacking group known as the Lizard squad carried out a DDoS attack on numerous online gaming platforms, including the PlayStation Network, during the Christmas holiday in a bid to force people to spend time with their families. The hacking group believes that many people spend a lot of time playing video games online with strangers and ignoring their family members.
Some hackers claim that gaming corporations are making billions of dollars in profits but fail to improve or help society. The DDoS attacks on the PlayStation Network disrupt business because users cannot purchase various services and productions in the PlayStation store. Companies like Sony lose a lot of money spending time repairing their site and upgrading their security system. Sometimes, even competitors can be behind a DDoS attack so that users who fail to log in to a successful site can move to their website.
Hackers do not necessarily initiate a DDoS attack for any reason, they do it because they can. In 2016, a teenager in New Hampshire pleaded guilty for causing massive disruption on PlayStation, Amazon, Netflix, and other major websites using a DDoS attack.
The teen and several others created a botnet that targeted devices such as video cameras and turned them into bots and used them to launch DDoS attacks on various websites. They carried out the DDoS attacks for no particular reason and caused Sony a massive loss of revenue close to three million dollars.
The main reason why online gaming platforms are still vulnerable to DDoS attacks is that many players who use online gaming services will do anything to win. Some people are even offering DDoS for hire services to online gamers.
The hackers disrupt the games by preventing numerous gamers from logging in, and only those who can log in get to participate and win the games. Many online gaming platforms are improving their security systems to ensure online gamers participate in fair and competitive games.
Can someone DDoS me on Xbox?
Someone can quite easily DDoS you on your Xbox if they know your real IP address. They can send more data to your IP address, making it difficult for you to connect to the internet from your Xbox.
Your real IP address, the one supplied by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) that is used to connect your Xbox to the internet is vulnerable to DDoS type attacks. This is because this IP address is public meaning any websites or internet services you connect to will know your IP address details.
Connecting to multiplayer online games on the internet will show your IP address to whoever you connect to. This could allow them to run DDoS tools to flood your internet connection, that is target your IP address with large amounts of trivial data. This will make it extremely difficult for you to connect to the internet, as your internet connection doesn’t have any spare bandwidth to make a connection out, as it is being bombarded with DDoS data traffic.
A VPN is easiest way to protect against DDoS (I use NordVPN). As the location of the VPN server your connection is routed through could have anti DDoS measures on its perimeter network to protect against DDoS attacks. Please do make sure the VPN you use protects against leaks, especially DNS leaks where the VPN doesn’t use its own DNS server and instead uses the one supplied by the ISP.
Also, some apps like social messaging apps especially real-time chat apps, VoIP used for voice calls over the internet to multiplayer games expose your real IP address, even when using a poor-quality VPN.
Again, NordVPN protects against all of these types of leaks including DNS leaks to WebRTC leaks and I’ve tested this using the ipleak website, which shows what potential leaks your VPN may have. Thankfully, NordVPN doesn’t have any leaks when tested using the ipleaks website, thereby providing full on protection against leakage.
How Long Do DDoS Attacks Last Xbox?
Players using the Xbox console can connect it to the internet and log in or sign up to the Xbox network and the Xbox Games Store community. A DDoS attack on Xbox makes online gaming and purchasing of video games and other products unavailable to users. If your Xbox console has been a target of a DDoS attack, you might be wondering how long it will take before you can use your device.
A DDoS attack on an Xbox console can last up to 24 hours. A DDoS attack on Xbox is directed at the Xbox network. The attacker picks out a specific device and floods its IP address with communication requests coming from multiple devices. These multiple requests cause a jam, which blocks network connections on the targeted devices.
If you are playing online games using an Xbox console, other players can get angry and threaten to “flood” your IP address. If a player floods your IP address, you will not have access to any online services from the Xbox network. There are certain things you can do to prevent a DDoS attack and also halt an ongoing attack.
Online gaming can be very competitive, especially when the games involve many players from across the world. Some players may want to win the game, while others just want to disrupt the progress of other players. If a player does not like what happened in the games, some usually seek DDoS attack-for-hire individuals or groups. If they get your IP address, then they can easily target your Xbox console and block you from accessing the Xbox network for hours.
If you believe your Xbox has been a target of a DDoS attack, the first thing you need to do is to turn off your Xbox or reset your internet router. If you turn off the power for close to ten minutes, it will halt the attack, and you might get another IP address to which the attacker will not have access. You should also contact your internet service provider and report the incident. If the attacker is someone you know in the online gaming community, avoid joining multiplayer games that they will be participating in.
It is difficult to prevent DDoS attacks, but you can do things to lower the chances of getting a DDoS attack. The first thing is to avoid using applications that might expose your network’s IP address. Some social apps and online multiplayer games can expose your IP address to everyone in your session. You should also avoid using WIFI hotspots when logging into your Xbox network accounts. Some hackers use Wi-Fi hotspots to gain information on all the devices connected to those Wi-Fi hotspots.
You can also use a VPN (virtual private network) to prevent other players or hackers from gaining access to your IP address. A VPN will encrypt your internet traffic and protect your online identity from malicious people. Ensure you get the best VPN that will protect and hide your IP address and encrypt all the data you send or receive through your Xbox console. You should also ensure you scan and protect your computer from malware.
Wrap Up
Some of the things that make most websites vulnerable to DDoS attacks include cheap hosting, lack of preparation, and insecure or out-of-date code. Many companies are offering hosting services, and not all of them offer quality services. Get hosting services from a reputable company with few clients. Some people think that a DDoS attack will never happen and fail to take necessary precautions to prevent it. Website developers use current code and will always upgrade them if they spot certain weaknesses. You should make it a habit to update your website security systems to keep attackers away.
Companies that offer online gaming services such as Sony and Microsoft have been targets of multiple DDoS attacks from individuals and hacking groups such as the Lizard squad. Some individuals have been arrested and found guilty for carrying out DDoS attacks, while others have been ordered to pay fines to affected companies. It may stop future attacks from happening, but to be on the safe side, companies keep improving their security system to ensure their users enjoy playing video games without any disruptions.
