7 Immediately Actionable Ways To Prevent DDoS Attacks
Distributed Denial of Service attacks don’t have to be inevitable.
--
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a specific type of cyberattack that singles out networks to overwhelm a system and deny service and functionality to end-users. These attacks use multiple computers loaded with malware to go after a single machine, overload it, and effectively shut down until the attack stops, or the affected network can regain control.
There are several forms of DDoS attacks out there, including DNS amplification, volumetric, and flood attacks.
In a DNS amplification attack, the bad actor takes advantage of a badly configured domain and converts small, typical packets of data into a larger payload the system is not designed to handle in such great volume. These overloaded payloads will bring an entire server down.
A volumetric denial of service attack sends an IP address such large volumes of traffic that authentic traffic cannot reach the server, thus making the website unavailable to end-users.
With flood attacks, a network of servers is flooded with queries that the targeted system will need to process. These can be self-replicating bots that inundate the targeted system and physically exhaust and damage the victim’s CPU or hard drive memory.
At first, it’s challenging to know what’s going on before it’s too late, and many victims of DDoS attacks find themselves suddenly helpless to do anything. Fortunately, there are some ways to prevent and minimize damage from DDoS attacks.
Have a plan
As with any kind of cyberattack or event that could disrupt your business or networks, it’s good to have a plan of action already drawn up and in the hands of those who can put it to work. That is the number one way to lessen the impact of any disruption or damage and save yourself a lot of time and grief in trying to recover. How you prepare for a DDoS attack will set the stage for how it will come to an end.
