What is a Brute Force Attack on a dedicated server ?

[Helina]

Hello,

Can some one please explain me what exactly is a brute force attack on a dedicated server? Also how can one prevent it from happening. what are the steps/measures to prevent it.

[Windows]

Hello Helina ,

Brute-force attack means to guess random passwords to get access control to your server. Attackers don't decrypt any information but continue to try different passwords using scripts or attacking tools. Basically attackers use dictionary of all words or common passwords and also uses programs that runs through all letters or numbers until it gets the correct match.

To prevent brute-force attacks you should increase the length of passwords with special characters in it and Lock the account after three login failed attempts.

Please let us know if you have any more doubts.

[jonathanc]

Hi Helina

Pretty much the first day your server goes on line you will be subject to attacks. It is always a little frightening when you scan your server logs and see the volume of attacks that go on routinely. You should monitor your logs to see what is going on on your server. Somewhere out there is server with a root login (which you should in any case prevent) having a password of... password!

Jonathan

[PrinceTin]

It is also a good idea to change your passwords regularly. The longer you leave the password the same the longer a brute-force auto-bot has to cycle through random passwords. Reset it and make them start from scratch.

[Rachael]

A brute force attack happens when a hackers tries to get access to a dedicated server or VPS through a standard login that maybe mail server, SSH or FTP. The hacker may try a combination of user names and passwords and this is signified with a brute force attack.