🚦 What Is a DDoS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to make a website or online service unavailable.
This is done by overwhelming the server with more requests than it can handle.
🚫 Denial of Service (DoS)
A DoS attack sends a large number of requests from a single source.
- The server becomes overloaded
- Real users are delayed or blocked
🌐 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
A DDoS attack works the same way as a DoS attack, but the traffic comes from many devices at once.
- Thousands or millions of requests
- Sent simultaneously
- From many locations
🤖 Where Do the Requests Come From?
Attackers often use a botnet.
A botnet is a network of devices infected with malware.
- Computers
- Phones
- Smart / IoT devices
The owners of these devices are usually unaware that:
- Their device is infected
- Being used, as part of a botnet, to attack a web server
📈 Why DDoS Attacks Are Hard to Stop
- Traffic looks like normal user traffic
- Requests come from many IP addresses
- Blocking one source doesn’t stop the attack
💥 What Happens During a DDoS Attack?
- Websites slow down
- Pages fail to load
- Users see errors or timeouts
The service is still online, but effectively unusable.
Key Points To Remember
DDoS attacks do not steal information.
Their purpose is to deny access by overwhelming systems.
The attacker is able to achieve this by:
- Infecting lots of other computers with malware
- The malware allows the attacker to control infected computers
- The infected computers collectively are called a botnet
- All computers in a botnet targer and overwhelm the same server together