A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a , service, website, or online platform by overwhelming it with a flood of from multiple sources. These attacks are "distributed" because they typically involve a network of compromised computers (often referred to as a ) that coordinate to flood the target with traffic. The sheer volume of traffic exhausts the target's resources, rendering it to legitimate users.
To defend against DDoS attacks, consider using a DDoS mitigation service or appliance that can detect and filter out traffic before it reaches your network or server. Implementing traffic analysis tools is also crucial to detect abnormal traffic and identify potential DDoS attacks early. Additionally, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can help distribute website content across multiple servers, reducing the impact of DDoS attacks by absorbing .
Ensuring that your infrastructure is scalable and can handle sudden traffic spikes is vital. balancing can distribute traffic evenly across multiple servers, while implementing rate limiting and traffic shaping helps control the rate at which incoming traffic is processed. Using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) can further filter out malicious traffic and protect against layer DDoS attacks. Lastly, deploying intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) is essential to detect unusual or suspicious traffic .
