Having DDoS protection running at the network level assures brute force attacks and DDoS attacks are foiled before they even reach your website. Our entire network is protected by DDoS protection which is an umbrella for all services offered by Web Host Pro.

DDoS is short for Distributed Denial of Service. Compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Victims of a DDoS attack consist of both the end targeted system and all systems maliciously used and controlled by the hacker in the distributed attack.

How DDoS attacks work

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a network, service, website, or online application by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic. In a DDoS attack, multiple compromised computers, known as "bots" or "zombies," are used to send a massive volume of requests or data packets to a target server or network simultaneously.

The main goals of a DDoS attack are:

1. Disruption: The sheer volume of incoming traffic floods the target's resources (such as bandwidth, CPU, or memory), making it unavailable to legitimate users. This can result in website downtime, slow performance, or service interruptions.

2. Depletion of Resources: The target's resources are consumed to the point where they become saturated, rendering them unable to respond to legitimate requests.

3. Distraction: DDoS attacks are sometimes used as a diversionary tactic to draw the target's attention away from another security breach or attack occurring simultaneously.

DDoS attacks can be orchestrated using a network of compromised computers, often through a botnet, which is a group of infected devices controlled by an attacker. These attacks can vary in complexity and scale, from relatively small attacks that disrupt a single website to large-scale attacks that affect entire networks or cloud services.

Mitigating DDoS attacks typically involves employing specialized security measures and tools, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, content delivery networks (CDNs), and traffic scrubbing services, to filter out malicious traffic and keep legitimate traffic flowing. Additionally, network administrators and security professionals continually adapt and evolve their strategies to counter increasingly sophisticated DDoS attack techniques.

The difference between DoS and DDoS attacks

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is different from a DDoS attack. The DoS attack typically uses one computer and one Internet connection to flood a targeted system or resource. The DDoS attack uses multiple computers and Internet connections to flood the targeted resource. DDoS attacks are often global attacks, distributed via  botnets.

Types of DDoS attacks

There are many types of DDoS attacks. Common attacks include the following:

• Traffic attacks:  Traffic flooding attacks send a huge volume of TCP, UDP, and ICPM packets to the target. Legitimate requests get lost and these attacks may be accompanied by malware exploitation.
• Bandwidth attacks:  This DDos attack overloads the target with massive amounts of junk data. This results in a loss of network bandwidth and equipment resources and can lead to a complete denial of service.
• Application attacks:  Application-layer data messages can deplete resources in the application layer, leaving the target's system services unavailable.