Summary
A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is a coordinated cyberattack that overwhelms a system, server, or network with fake traffic to make it unavailable to legitimate users. These attacks pose a serious threat to businesses, especially in finance, e-commerce, and healthcare, where uptime and data integrity are critical.
What Is a Distributed Denial-of-Service (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 overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. Unlike a basic Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, DDoS uses multiple systems—often compromised devices from across the globe—to execute the attack simultaneously.
How It Works
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks typically involve three main components:
- Botnets: Attackers infect multiple devices (bots) with malware to control them remotely.
- Command and Control Servers (C2): These systems coordinate the attack, instructing botnets when and where to strike.
- Target Overload: The bots flood the target with requests, packets, or connections, consuming resources and bandwidth until the service slows or crashes.
Common types of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks include:
- Volume-based attacks (e.g., UDP floods)
- Protocol attacks (e.g., SYN floods)
- Application-layer attacks (e.g., HTTP floods)
Who’s at Risk
Any online service or digital infrastructure can be targeted, but the most vulnerable include:
- Financial institutions
- Healthcare providers
- Retail and e-commerce platforms
- Government websites
- SaaS companies
High-profile events, sales periods, or politically sensitive content often attract DDoS threats.
Real-World Examples
- GitHub (2018): Hit with the largest recorded DDoS attack at the time, peaking at 1.35 Tbps.
- Dyn (2016): A massive attack on this DNS provider took down sites like Twitter, Netflix, and Reddit.
- Estonia (2007): A politically motivated DDoS campaign disrupted government and banking services.
How to Detect or Prevent It
Detection:
- Unusual traffic spikes
- Latency or slow site performance
- Server crashes or 503 errors
Prevention and Mitigation:
- Rate limiting and traffic filtering
- Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)
- DDoS protection services (e.g., Cloudflare, AWS Shield)
- Geo-blocking or CAPTCHA challenges
- Load balancing and redundancy
How Feroot Helps
While DDoS attacks occur at the network or application layer, they often go hand-in-hand with other client-side threats like malicious JavaScript injection, data exfiltration, or credential harvesting. Feroot helps by:
- Monitoring third-party scripts that could be exploited during or after a DDoS attack.
- Detecting unauthorized client-side activity that might bypass traditional DDoS defenses.
- Alerting security teams to behavioral anomalies in web applications.
FAQ
What’s the difference between DoS and DDoS?
A DoS attack originates from a single source, while a DDoS attack is distributed across multiple systems, making it harder to block or trace.
Are DDoS attacks illegal?
Yes. In most jurisdictions, launching or facilitating a DDoS attack is considered a cybercrime and is punishable by law.
Can a small business be targeted by DDoS?
Absolutely. Small businesses are often more vulnerable due to limited security infrastructure.
How long do DDoS attacks last?
They can last from a few minutes to several days, depending on the attacker’s resources and motives.
