What is a DDOS Attack and How does it affect Access to University Websites

What is a DDoS Attack and Does it Affect College Website Access?

 

Relevant To: All ESC Students, Faculty and Staff

Introduction

Our hosted university systems, such as Brightspace and PayPal, use Domain Name Servers (DNS). Occasionally, these external systems experience interrupted service due to  Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.  A DDoS attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. They target a wide variety of important resources, from banks to news websites, and present a major challenge to making sure people can publish and access important information. ("What Is a DDoS Attack? - Digital Attack Map." N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.)

For general information  about DDoS attacks and to view an interactive map on attacks occurring world wide go to: 

http://www.digitalattackmap.com/understanding-ddos/   

During incidents where our services are impacted by these types of cyber attacks, the Information Technology Services (ITS) staff work closely with our vendors to monitor these events. 

To report an outage or issue with any of the university systems or to ask for additional information, please contact the ITS Service Desk at 888-HELP-009 (1-888-435-7009) or submit an incident ticket at www.sunyempire.edu/service-desk.