A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a network, 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 (often referred to as a botnet) that coordinate to flood the target with traffic. The sheer volume of traffic exhausts the target's resources, rendering it inaccessible to 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 can help detect abnormal traffic patterns and identify potential DDoS attacks . Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can distribute website content across multiple servers and locations, reducing the impact of DDoS attacks by absorbing traffic.
Additionally, ensuring that your infrastructure is can help handle sudden traffic spikes. Implementing rate limiting and traffic shaping controls the rate at which incoming traffic is . Finally, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to filter out malicious traffic can protect against application layer DDoS attacks, while deploying intrusion detection and prevention systems can detect or suspicious traffic patterns.
