Denial of Service Attack
Students will model one type of attack (a denial-of-service attack) and figure out how to protect the network against it (no computer programming required)
OVERVIEW
Activity Overview:
Students will model one type of attack (a denial-of-service attack) and figure out how to protect the network against it (no computer programming required)
Meta description
- Grade Level : 9-12
- Subject Area: Science, Technology
- Cybersecurity Concept:
- Integrity, Availability
- Computer Science Domains:
- Networks and The Internet
- Computer Science Principles:
- Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems
- Materials:
- Considerations:
- One type of cyber-attack is the denial-of-service (DoS) attack. A DoS attack typically floods a server with so much traffic that it is overwhelmed and unable to respond to legitimate users. The site appears very slow or not functional to regular visitors. Unlike other types of cyber-attacks, the goal of a DoS attack is not to steal confidential information. Activists may use DoS attacks to damage the target organization’s reputation or limit its visibility at a critical time or by criminals who demand a ransom payment to allow a website to come back up.
Lesson Plan
Overview
Students will model one type of attack (a denial-of-service attack) and figure out how to protect the network against it (no computer programming required)
PRE/POST-TEST
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/quiz-cybersecurity-denial.pdf https://www.sciencebuddies.org/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/quiz-cybersecurity-denial.pdf
OBJECTIVES
- Execute a denial-of-service attack on a model of a computer network.
- Determine quantitative metrics that can measure the impact of a denial-of-service attack.
- Design and test a solution to prevent a denial-of-service attack on a model of a computer network.
CATCH/HOOK
Students will participate in hands-on activities involving the Design and testing of a solution to prevent a denial-of-service attack on a model of a computer network.
ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
In this lesson, students act out the network in its simplest form: requests posted by a client travel over the Internet to a server, which then processes the requests. without using computers or the Internet. Some students will act as clients, writing colored cards representing “requests” or information to be sent to the server. Other students will serve online, collecting and transporting these cards (requests) to the server. One student acting as the server will receive the requests and process them. A student (the guard) will initially oversee the process and can later be used to represent a firewall. One student will serve as an attacker and flood the system with requests to simulate a DoS attack. Although this greatly simplifies the information flow happening in real life, it is an easy way to show how a successful DoS attack can be launched, how it affects the network, and how cybersecurity professionals can counter it. Let your students be the cybersecurity personnel, identify cyber-attacks, and find creative ways to protect the service against the attacks.
REVIEW
In this activity, the attack was launched from one single client. The teacher will explain that sometimes, hackers use a network of devices or a botnet to launch a denial-of-service attack. This type of attack is called a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The attackers do not necessarily own the devices from which they launch the attack. They maliciously gain a certain amount of control over devices connected to the Internet and use them to launch the attack. You might be wondering who would ever allow someone to use their device to launch a distributed denial-of-service attack from their machine. The sad truth is that you might not know your computer, phone, or other Internet-connected device is being used!
STANDARDS
MS-ETS1-3 MS-ETS1-4 FL DA.IM, IC.SI ETS1.B