How to Detect and Prevent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
- Michael Paulyn
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Picture this—you try loading your favorite website, and it won’t budge. No matter how many times you hit refresh, nothing happens. Behind the scenes? That site might be under a DDoS attack.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks aren’t new, but they’ve evolved and remain one of the most disruptive cyber threats out there.
This blog looks at what DDoS attacks are, how they work, and most importantly, how to stop them before they take you offline.
What Exactly Is a DDoS Attack?
Let’s break it down.
A Denial of Service (DoS) attack tries to overwhelm a system, server, or network, making it unavailable to users. Now imagine that—but instead of one attacker, thousands of devices all hit you at once.
That’s a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Attackers use compromised computers—called a botnet—to flood a target with so much traffic it crashes. The goal? Knock a website offline, disrupt operations, or sometimes extort a ransom.
And no one’s safe. Businesses, governments, banks, e-commerce platforms—even gaming servers—get targeted.
How Do You Know You’re Under Attack?
Here are some red flags:
Sudden traffic spikes from unknown sources
Slow website performance or frequent timeouts
Unusual patterns like repeated requests to a specific endpoint
Servers crashing or needing constant restarts
Alerts from monitoring tools showing resource exhaustion (bandwidth, CPU, RAM)
And since DDoS attacks can mimic normal traffic at first, they’re often hard to detect without the right tools.
Types of DDoS Attacks
There are a few main flavors:
1. Volumetric AttacksThese try to max out your bandwidth with junk traffic. Think: flooding your pipes until they burst.
2. Protocol AttacksThese target servers or network equipment by exploiting weaknesses in communication protocols (like SYN floods or ping of death).
3. Application Layer AttacksThese are more sneaky. They hit the app level—think of overwhelming a login page or contact form—to drain system resources.
Each type hits in a different way, and some attackers combine them for maximum chaos.
How to Prevent DDoS Attacks
You can’t always stop attackers from trying, but you can make sure they don’t succeed.
1. Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)A WAF filters incoming traffic and blocks suspicious requests before they reach your servers.
2. Enable Rate LimitingLimit how many requests a user (or IP address) can send in a given time. This helps control traffic floods.
3. Monitor Traffic in Real TimeUse tools that give you visibility into your traffic—so you can spot a DDoS early and act fast.
4. Leverage Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)CDNs distribute traffic across multiple servers and absorb large spikes, making it harder for a DDoS to take you down.
5. Work With a DDoS Protection ProviderServices like Cloudflare, Akamai, and AWS Shield are built to stop large-scale DDoS attacks in their tracks.
What to Do if You’re Under Attack
Alert your hosting provider or ISP immediately—they may have mitigation systems in place.
Activate your incident response plan (you have one, right?).
Analyze the logs and traffic to pinpoint the type and source of the attack.
Communicate transparently if users are affected—keeping people in the loop builds trust.
Final Thoughts
DDoS attacks can feel like digital hurricanes—fast, destructive, and hard to predict.
But with the right tools and preparation, they’re manageable. Don’t wait until your site’s down and customers are frustrated. Get ahead of the storm.
Because when it comes to DDoS, resilience is everything.
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