What is a DDoS attack and how do I prevent it?

What is a DDoS attack?

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by flooding the surrounding target or infrastructure with an Internet traffic stream.

DDoS attacks achieve their effectiveness by using multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. Operating machines may include computers and other network resources such as IoT devices.

At a high level, a DDoS attack is like an unexpected traffic jam blocking the highway, preventing regular traffic from reaching its destination.

How to identify and prevent DDoS attacks?

A good indication of a possible DDoS attack is a sudden increase in the number of requests sent to your server. This increase can be seen in your traffic analysis tools.

If you find that the number of requests is increasing exponentially and unexpectedly, it is possible that this is due to a DDOS attack.

If you use Cloudflare on your site, it is recommended that you use the Cloudflare security mode I’m under attack. This will allow to reject the majority of these false requests and reduce the scope of the problem.

However, DDoS attacks are sometimes so important that it is necessary to cancel the routing of the IP address of your hosting. This makes all websites stored on the same server unavailable.

In general, DDoS attacks only last a few hours at most, but in rare cases they can last a few days.

Using a dedicated IP address can help prevent this type of problem. They are less prone to DDoS attacks, unless hackers get their hands on your IP address.

Updated on: 22/03/2023