Deciphering the Surge: A Focused Review of Flooding Attacks and Proactive Defense Mechanisms using Anomaly-Based Detection Strategies

Abstract

Abstract: Flooding attacks, a taxonomical classification of the denial-of-service attacks, are a brute force attempt of overloading and incapacitating the target by consuming the entirety of the bandwidth reserved for ensuring availability. Over the years, flooding attacks have evolved, in both mode of delivery as well as attack surface parameters. Today, they pose a very serious threat to critical infrastructure and services across the globe. This paper presents a concise and focused review of flooding attacks, their expanse on the global cyber landscape alongside some recent case studies and security mechanisms adopted by industry as standards to tackle with them, followed by a review of the detection strategies using anomaly techniques for a proactive defense and the challenges faced.