@article{ABDULKAREEM_ZEEBAREE_2022, title={OPTIMIZATION OF LOAD BALANCING ALGORITHMS TO DEAL WITH DDOS ATTACKS USING WHALE ‎OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM}, volume={25}, url={https://journal.uod.ac/index.php/uodjournal/article/view/1904}, DOI={10.26682/sjuod.2022.25.2.7}, abstractNote={<p><strong>Load balancing algorithms are used to deal with DDoS attacks to identify the optimal server and are responsible for the optimal allocation of requests to the servers. The managing method of the distribution of the requests between servers directly impacts network performance. Denial of service (DDoS) attacks are malicious attempts to interrupt regular operation or network traffic in a targeted manner, making disturbances in internet traffic by disrupting the infrastructure of different servers and thus causing problems such as slow site performance. This paper addresses the optimization of load balancing algorithms to deal with DDoS attacks using Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) with other closest algorithms (Round-Robin (RR), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Genetic Algorithms (GA)). The results obtained from implementing these algorithms showed that the WOA performed better than other algorithms in term of speed up the response time to client requests. The whale optimization algorithm can prevent unexpected traffic and block the regular operation of Internet websites by providing a proper plan for distributing requests between servers and reducing the average response speed. So, the authors can prevent DDoS attacks by applying the whale optimization algorithm. It necessary be noted that the use of HAProxy to prevent DDoS is not enough, and depending on the type of attack, several layers of software and hardware security necessary be used</strong></p&gt;}, number={2}, journal={Journal of Duhok University}, author={ABDULKAREEM, NASIBA MAHDI and ZEEBAREE, SUBHI R. M.}, year={2022}, month={Nov.}, pages={65-85} }