Term · Security & infrastructure
DDoS attack
A DDoS attack — distributed denial of service — is an attempt to make a website or online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic or requests from many sources at once, often compromised devices organised into a botnet.
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Explained
Types
- Volumetric: floods the network connection with massive traffic.
- Protocol: exhausts server or network equipment resources with malformed or incomplete connections.
- Application layer: sends requests that look legitimate but are expensive to process — searches, logins, heavy pages — and can bring down a server with relatively little traffic.
Who is targeted
Not only large companies: online stores during sales, booking sites in high season, gaming and media sites, businesses in competitive niches and organisations involved in public debates. Attacks can be bought cheaply as a service.
Protection
- A CDN or security provider that absorbs volumetric attacks. See CDN.
- A web application firewall and rate limiting for application-layer attacks.
- Hiding the origin server's IP address.
- Caching to reduce server load.
- Monitoring and a response plan.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is a DDoS attack a data breach?
Not by itself; it targets availability. Sometimes attacks are used as a distraction for other intrusions, so review logs afterwards.
How long do attacks last?
From minutes to days. Protection set up in advance makes most attacks a non-event.