What happens in a DDoS attack?

What is a DDoS attack?

• A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic to Sparx by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic.
• DDoS attacks achieve effectiveness by utilising multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic.
• From a high level, a DDoS attack is like an unexpected traffic jam clogging up the highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its destination.
  

Find out more in this video: What is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack? | Cloudflare

What do we do at Sparx to mitigate DDoS attacks?

We have several protective systems in place to minimise the possibility of these attacks happening, and to minimise any impact on our schools.

What is the impact of the DDoS attacks on schools?

• Students and teachers may not be able to carry out required tasks when they want to
• Less homework gets completed
• Teachers may feel they have to excuse students from completing homework if the student reports there were issues

What might I experience during a DDoS attack?

• Normal:  neither students nor teachers would notice anything as the attack has been mitigated.
• Normal but just slightly slower: for some, it would be similar to having ‘wifi trouble’, you will see ‘spinning wheels’ for longer than normal.
• Normal but much slower: in some cases errors might be displayed, similar to using a website on a poor mobile connection. 
• Student is challenged to see if they are legitimate: If our system isn’t sure that a student’s use is legitimate it can display a ‘Managed Challenge’ screen, once the student confirms they are legitimate, they will not be asked again.
• Put in a waiting room: If a particular part of the system is attacked, students can be put in a ‘Waiting Room’, while the issue is sorted. This is a very rare occurrence.

What if I notice a problem?

• If you see an error screen, you should not worry - follow the instructions on the screen. See below for example error messages
• If Sparx is unusable then try again in a couple of minutes and things should be back to normal
• Schools should be encouraged to build resilience in students to try again in a few minutes - DDoS attacks affect all aspects of using the internet, not just Sparx and should not be used as a reason for not doing homework.
• If you are concerned, please let us know by emailing schoolsupport@sparx.co.uk
  

Error message examples

Only seen in the student login

Students may see errors such as these during a DDoS attack:

Slow response

Request Time Out

Seen in either the teacher or student login

You may see different types of error messages depending on the type of DDoS attack being carried out. Here are some examples of types of attacks and the error messages you might see: