One of the threats present on the internet that every website owner should be aware of is Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The risk they pose to servers is increasing worldwide, regardless of your location. The consequences of such attacks are far from pleasant, hence the need to understand what they are and, more importantly, how to protect your business from becoming a victim of DDoS.

What is a DDoS attack?

Essentially, a DDoS attack is a series of attacks aimed at making your website's services unavailable. The process involves slowing down and subsequently overwhelming the site, causing so much havoc that recovering from it becomes a time and money-consuming challenge.

Function of a DDoS attack

The main purpose of this attack is to take your site offline. It tests the limits of your server. In some cases, it may consist of only a sequence of malicious requests, but all of them are targeted at vulnerable endpoints, using a botnet army (zombie devices) that keeps attacking until all application services are affected, completely compromising its performance.

Repercussions of a DDoS attack

When legitimate users cannot access your website, it triggers a chain of events that not only make you lose business opportunities but also significantly damage the credibility of your brand. The extent of the impact results in significant financial losses, and if your business relies on online sales or cloud-hosted management services, it could even mean the end of your business.

The losses directly depend on the type of attack and its magnitude. Minor attacks can cost victims thousands of dollars and can be purchased by competitors for as little as $150 on the black market. Dealing with a continuous series of such attacks requires the use of mitigation measures that can break a business.

How to stop a DDoS attack?

There are various alternatives to stop and even prevent DDoS attacks. One of these is to create a list of assets that can help identify DDoS attacks and block them before they cause damage.

Having a response plan is another method you can apply to react in an organized manner, with premeditated strategies to halt the attack. Knowing whom to contact as soon as you detect the attack is also crucial.

It is essential to have tools capable of identifying and filtering connections from real users.

Conclusion

Understanding and identifying these types of attacks are essential to empower your company with the abilities and resources to keep it protected. Although it's normal not to fully comprehend all aspects of these attacks in a short period, what is crucial is knowing whom to turn to and which means can offer you the best results. In this case, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection is the ideal option as it expels all malicious traffic and content from your web space, keeping it safeguarded."