Testing a distributed denial of service defence mechanism using red teaming

The increased number of security threats against the Internet has made communications more vulnerable to attacks. Despite much research and improvement in network security, the number of denial of service (DoS) attacks has rapidly grown in frequency, severity, and sophistication in recent years. Thus, serious attention needs to be paid to network security. However, to create a secure network that can stay ahead of all threats, detection and response features are real challenges. In this paper, we look at the the interaction between the attacker and the defender in a Red Team/Blue Team exercise. We also propose a quantitative decision framework which is able to provide optimal solutions to defend against well-organized and sophisticated attacks. A large number of possible scenarios for testing of DoS defences will be examined through this framework in order to help experts to improve decisions regarding optimal solutions to defend against DoS threats.