DDoS attacks
How to respond when your website is flooded with malicious traffic
An increase in traffic is usually a sign that your business is growing. So, when your IT team notices an uptick in user visits, it’s often viewed as (and usually is) a good sign. But what happens when that increase turns into a huge surge, and those visits are actually an intentional and malicious attempt to take down your site?
This type of cyberattack is known as a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. The technique exploits a website’s infrastructure limitations by overwhelming its servers until the service is disrupted for regular customers. It can happen quickly and be hard to spot at first, so customers may already be affected by the time you’re in troubleshooting mode.
Understanding what DDOS attacks are, how to respond to them, and how to avoid them can help ensure your team is prepared if your company’s website is ever targeted.
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What are DDoS attacks?
A DDoS attack occurs when a malicious actor intentionally floods a website or service with a large volume of requests to overwhelm the system. This typically disrupts the service for legitimate customers who can no longer access it during the attack.
💡 If you’ve ever tried to buy popular concert tickets as soon as they went on sale and the website wouldn’t load properly, you’ve had a similar experience to what happens in a DDoS attack; the site received too many requests within a short period of time, and it couldn’t handle the volume.
A DDoS attack recreates this outcome, but it’s done intentionally as a way to break the site.
The attack typically relies on a huge number of hijacked devices working together (also known as a botnet). The botnet could be thousands or even millions of devices that all make coordinated requests directed at the same target. It’s typically created when an attacker installs malware on actual devices that enables them to orchestrate the attack.
From the target’s perspective, a DDoS attack can be pretty stressful. Since these requests are often coming from regular devices, it can be hard to tell at first that the influx of traffic is even an attack. The target company will typically notice there’s something suspicious about their web traffic or load times and hopefully respond quickly.
While the motivations behind DDoS attacks can vary, there are some common themes.
What is the goal of a DDoS attack?
There are several reasons why a cybercriminal may initiate a DDoS attack. For example, it’s common for there to be some type of financial gain, such as extorting the target into paying a ransom to stop the attack. It could also be a form of sabotage from another competitor to make the target look like an insecure or unreliable option to customers.
DDoS attacks can be a form of activism (or “hacktivism”) if the attacker disapproves of the target in some way, or to create a distraction while a different type of attack is initiated behind the scenes. A DDoS attack could even be just for “fun” (if you can call it that); some hackers do it just for the challenge of taking a site down.
Regardless of why the attack happens, there are many ways to prepare your team so they know what to do next and how to stop an attack as quickly as possible.
How to respond to a DDoS attack
Once the attack has been identified, companies can take several actions to resolve it.
Your team should start by contacting your cloud or internet service providers immediately. The goal is to rate-limit requests for each IP address or even block suspicious IP addresses. You can also consider geo-blocking specific regions if the attack appears to originate from a particular area. These options help reduce the number of incoming requests, which should help normalize your request activity back down to a manageable rate.
There are also several ways to prevent DDoS attacks, whether you’ve already gone through one and need to strengthen your infrastructure, or you’re just planning ahead.
How to stay protected from an attack
Many of the preventative measures for avoiding the impact of a DDoS attack are also useful solutions for handling the increased traffic that comes with a growing business. This is because influxes in customer traffic can be an issue even when it’s from regular customers. These measures include using firewalls to filter suspicious traffic, or implementing load balancers to distribute web traffic across multiple servers when demand increases.
For companies who prefer to delegate this work, there are third-party DDoS mitigation services that will detect and divert malicious traffic for you.
DDoS attacks can be overwhelming but with the right infrastructure and request management, you can help ensure your website is protected. And if you try to visit a website that won’t load, remember to send some positive energy towards their IT team who’s trying to get it back online.