What is a Permanent DoS (PDoS) Attack?

In today’s modern world, we often come across the term Cybercrime or Cyberattacks very frequently. With the increasing demand for the internet, cybercrime occurrence has taken a great spike. Cyber crimes are crimes involving cyber technology/computer networks. Cyberattacks are extremely dangerous as they involve stealing confidential user information and breaching the individual privacy of users. Users of computer technology become victims of cyber crimes knowingly or unknowingly when their systems are attacked. The intentions of cyberattackers in some cases behind the cyber crimes may include causing loss of data or asking ransom amount in exchange for the stolen data from the user’s account.

Cybercrime is a very dangerous crime and is considered to be punishable by law. The stealing of data may be due to many reasons including personal, professional, economic, or political. Cyberattackers are considered criminals and their act of stealing user data can lead them behind the bars.

Here, in this article, we will discuss one very dangerous type of cybercrime- PDoS (Permanent Denial of Service) which is slowly gaining popularity among cyber hackers for executing their malicious intention of stealing information.

Permanent Denial of Service:

• PDoS (Permanent Denial of Service) is a form of Denial of Service that involves causing harm to the computer hardware/ peripheral devices. 
• This mechanism adopted by PDoS (Permanent Denial of Service) of physical damage to the hardware is termed ‘phlashing’.  
• Permanent Denial of Service is an extremely dangerous type of cyber attack as the damage to the hardware is so risky that it causes loss of information and also hampers the hardware device permanently.

What Makes PDoS (Permanent Denial of Service) Cyberattacks Risky?

Below are the reasons which make the ‘Permanent Denial of Service’ cyberattack very risky :

• Permanent Denial of Service is relatively easy to adopt by cybercriminals, as data is directly harmed by causing harm to the hardware. 
• The cyber attackers find Permanent Denial of Service easy as it requires less time and effort to carry out this form of cybercrime.
• Organizations depending largely on hardware for their day-to-day daily work are at extreme risk with this form of cyberattack, as information loss is the easiest through them by PDoS.
• In Permanent Denial of Service, the hardware is damaged to such an extent that the person/organization has no option left to recover the data. 
• The organizations are then forced to forcefully repair or purchase new hardware for their organization to replace the old systems.

Methods to Prevent PDoS (Permanent Denial of Service) Cyber attacks:

Below are some methods to prevent Permanent Denial of Service :

• Keep a close watch on the accessibility of your hardware devices. 
• Hardware devices should not be easily accessible for attack by unauthorized people/ cybercriminals.
• Make sure that the most important and critical hardware devices are in a safe and secure place.
• Always update/ upgrade your devices regularly.