What Is a DDoS Attack? Explained for Non-Tech Users

Your website suddenly grinds to a halt. Customers can’t access your online store, and frustrated visitors abandon your site for competitors. You might be experiencing a DDoS attack – one of the most disruptive cyber threats targeting businesses today.

Distributed denial-of-service attacks have exploded in frequency and severity, with cybercriminals launching coordinated strikes against companies of all sizes. We’ll explain exactly what DDoS attacks are, how they work, and practical steps to protect your business from these increasingly common digital threats.

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Table of Contents

1. What is a DDoS Attack?
2. How Do DDOS Attacks Work?
3. Types of DDoS Attacks
4. How to Recognize a DDoS Attack?
5. DDoS Mitigation and Protection Strategies

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What is a DDoS Attack?

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack disrupts a website or server by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. Attackers use networks of infected computers (botnets) to flood the target with requests, causing slowdowns or complete outages, and making services unavailable to legitimate users.

The keyword here is “distributed.” Unlike a simple Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack that comes from a single source, DDoS attacks originate from multiple locations worldwide, making them far more powerful and difficult to stop. Cybercriminals achieve this scale by hijacking thousands or even millions of internet-connected devices to create what’s called a botnet.

Botnets include hacked computers, smartphones, smart TVs, cameras, and other internet-connected devices. Most owners are unaware that their devices are being used in attacks.

Once the botnet is ready, attackers launch a flood of connection requests from these zombie devices, quickly consuming the target’s bandwidth and processing capacity.

Traffic flooding overwhelms servers in several ways. Because web servers can only process a limited number of requests per second, coordinated traffic floods can crash or slow them to a crawl.

What makes DDoS attacks dangerous is their ability to target different layers of your online infrastructure simultaneously. Attackers might overwhelm your bandwidth, exhaust server resources, or exploit specific cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your applications.

This multi-pronged approach makes defense challenging and requires comprehensive network security measures to counter effectively.

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How Do DDOS Attacks Work?

Hackers execute DDoS attacks through a sophisticated process that begins months before you ever notice anything wrong. They first build their arsenal by scanning the internet for vulnerable devices, especially Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets like smart doorbells, wifi routers, and connected appliances that often ship with default passwords or weak security settings.

Once attackers identify these targets, they deploy malware that quietly infiltrates devices without alerting owners. This infection is happening silently in the background. The malware establishes a communication channel back to the attacker’s command-and-control servers, effectively turning each infected device into a remote-controlled weapon.

When ready to strike, cybercriminals send coordinated instructions to their assembled army of compromised devices. These commands trigger simultaneous connection attempts using spoofed IP addresses – fake return addresses that make tracking the real source nearly impossible. Each infected device appears to make legitimate requests, but the combined volume creates an unstoppable digital tsunami.

Recent high-profile incidents demonstrate the devastating scale these attacks can reach. Amazon Web Services faced a record-breaking assault in February 2020 that peaked at 2.3 terabits per second – enough bandwidth to download thousands of movies simultaneously. Two years earlier, GitHub weathered a massive attack reaching 1.35 terabits per second before their mitigation systems kicked in.

IoT devices have become prime targets because manufacturers often prioritize convenience over security. Many users never change default login credentials, leaving millions of smart devices exposed to exploitation.

As homes and businesses deploy more connected gadgets, attackers gain access to increasingly powerful botnets capable of launching devastating assaults against any online target they choose.

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Types of DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks fall into three main types, each targeting a different part of your system. Knowing how they work helps you respond more effectively.

1. Volumetric Attacks

Volumetric attacks aim to consume all available bandwidth (amount of data transferred over a network in a given time) between your website and the internet. These assaults generate massive amounts of data to overwhelm your connection capacity, much like a traffic jam blocking a highway.

DNS amplification is the most common volumetric technique. Attackers exploit public DNS servers by sending small requests with your website’s spoofed IP address as the return destination. The DNS server responds with much larger data packets, sometimes 70 times bigger than the original request.

It’s like making a prank call to order pizza delivery for someone else’s address, except thousands of pizzas arrive simultaneously at the victim’s doorstep.

2. Protocol Attacks

Protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in network communication rules to exhaust server resources. They attack the systems that manage device connections.

A SYN flood (synchronize — the first step in starting a TCP connection) exemplifies this attack type perfectly. When your computer connects to a website, it follows a three-step handshake process using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

Attackers send thousands of connection requests but never complete the final handshake step. Your server keeps these incomplete connections open, waiting for responses that never arrive. Eventually, all available connection slots fill up, preventing legitimate users from accessing your site.

3. Application Layer Attacks

Application layer attacks target the specific software running your website or web application. These assaults mimic user behavior, making detection extremely challenging.

Hackers use HTTP flood attacks to overwhelm your web server from multiple sources. They simulate thousands of users refreshing your homepage simultaneously. Each request forces your server to process database queries, load files, and generate responses, quickly exhausting computational resources.

Unlike other attack types, these requests appear completely normal individually, but their collective volume brings websites crashing down.

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How to Recognize a DDoS Attack?

Detecting a DDoS attack early can prevent serious downtime. The symptoms often appear to be regular technical issues, so many businesses overlook them.

Slow-loading pages or timeouts are often the first warning signs. Customer complaints about accessibility issues start flooding your support channels, and your online systems experience unexplained slowdowns.

Traffic analytics reveal more specific indicators of malicious activity. Genuine traffic shows diverse geographic origins and varied user behaviors. DDoS attacks create suspicious patterns: massive traffic spikes from specific IP ranges, identical user agents across thousands of requests, or visitors accessing the same page repeatedly.

Monitoring tools can detect these anomalies. Professional solutions track connection attempts, bandwidth usage, and server response times. These systems alert administrators when metrics exceed normal thresholds, often catching attacks before they cause visible damage.

Under pressure, weak spots appear, databases may fail, and third-party tools can break. Tracking normal performance makes it easier to spot unusual spikes.

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DDoS Mitigation and Protection Strategies

Layered defenses provide the best protection against staying online during a DDoS attack. Don’t wait for disaster, put these protections in place before trouble starts:

• Blackhole Routing: This measure redirects all incoming traffic to a null destination, effectively isolating your servers from attack traffic. While blackhole routing stops attacks immediately, it also blocks genuine customers, making your website completely inaccessible. Use this only as a last resort when other defenses fail.
• Rate Limiting: This approach controls the number of requests your server accepts from individual IP addresses within specific time windows. This basic defense slows down attackers by restricting connection attempts per minute or hour. However, sophisticated DDoS attacks using thousands of different IP addresses can easily bypass simple rate controls.
• Web Application Firewall (WAF): A WAF sits between your website and incoming traffic, filtering requests based on predefined security rules. These systems excel at blocking application layer attacks by identifying malicious patterns in HTTP requests. Quality WAF solutions adapt their rules automatically as new attack signatures emerge.
• Anycast Network Diffusion: Distributes attack traffic across multiple servers worldwide, preventing any single location from becoming overwhelmed. This advanced technique absorbs massive traffic volumes by spreading the load geographically. Major cloud providers use Anycast systems to handle multi-terabit attacks.
• Response Planning: Preparation determines survival during attacks. Establish clear communication protocols, assign specific roles to team members, and practice response procedures. Your strategy should include contact information for hosting providers, security vendors, and emergency technical support to minimize response delays.

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Stay Ahead of Attacks

DDoS attacks can cripple websites in minutes, but with the proper knowledge and preparation, you can stay ahead of cybercriminals. From volumetric floods to stealthy application-layer threats, understanding how these attacks work is the first step toward protection.

SSL Dragon offers more than SSL certificates; we’re your trusted partner in online security. Our solutions help secure your site’s data, build visitor trust, and strengthen your defenses. Don’t wait for an attack to expose vulnerabilities. Explore our range of SSL products and security resources today, and take a proactive step toward a safer, more resilient digital presence