Visible to the public Same Form, Different Payloads: A Comparative Vector Assessment of DDoS and Disinformation Attacks

TitleSame Form, Different Payloads: A Comparative Vector Assessment of DDoS and Disinformation Attacks
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2022
AuthorsCaramancion, Kevin Matthe
Conference Name2022 IEEE International IOT, Electronics and Mechatronics Conference (IEMTRONICS)
Date Publishedjun
KeywordsComputers, Conferences, cybersecurity, DDoS, disinformation, Human Behavior, Law, Mechatronics, Media, open systems, pubcrawl, Scalability, Social Agents, social networking (online), standardization, Threat Assessment
AbstractThis paper offers a comparative vector assessment of DDoS and disinformation attacks. The assessed dimensions are as follows: (1) the threat agent, (2) attack vector, (3) target, (4) impact, and (5) defense. The results revealed that disinformation attacks, anchoring on astroturfs, resemble DDoS's zombie computers in their method of amplification. Although DDoS affects several layers of the OSI model, disinformation attacks exclusively affect the application layer. Furthermore, even though their payloads and objectives are different, their vector paths and network designs are very similar. This paper, as its conclusion, strongly recommends the classification of disinformation as an actual cybersecurity threat to eliminate the inconsistencies in policies in social networking platforms. The intended target audiences of this paper are IT and cybersecurity experts, computer and information scientists, policymakers, legal and judicial scholars, and other professionals seeking references on this matter.
DOI10.1109/IEMTRONICS55184.2022.9795803
Citation Keycaramancion_same_2022