There are several methods by which malicious agents attack websites and destabilize network services and resources.

One of the most commonly used techniques is the DDoS attack, which stands for distributed denial-of-service.

Through this attack, a website ends up becoming inoperable and overloaded with malicious traffic.

However, DDoS attacks can also be made against all types of network resources, such as virtual applications, data centers, corporate servers, APIs, etc.

Traffic overload can cause a variety of problems for your company, from bottlenecks in accessing important data to the unavailability of all digital tools in the corporation.

As a result, it is important to be aware of these attacks and articulate solutions to protect your company.

There are several ways to prevent DDoS attacks on your enterprise servers. In this text, we will explain in more detail what DDoS attacks are and how they can affect your business.

And, above all, how to prevent DDoS attacks in your company.

What Are DDoS Attacks?

Before specifying what DDoS attacks are, we must understand what DoS (denial-of-service) attacks are in general.

A DoS attack is a way of rendering a network resource unusable. The attack is usually carried out with a traffic overload, directing a series of superfluous requests to render the website unusable.

Through these malicious requests, the system ends up being overloaded and unable to process legitimate requests.

In the DDoS attack, the traffic maliciously directed to the resource comes from several sources. By multiplying the source of the attack, the method makes it impossible to avoid overloading by blocking a single source.

DDoS attacks are often used as a criminal mechanism. By rendering the system unusable, hackers can blackmail large organizations.

There are numerous techniques for performing a DDoS attack.

The simplest way to do a DDoS attack is through a specialized attack tool such as Slowloris or Stacheldraht. This type of tool is included in several types of malware and can perform the attack without the knowledge of the system administrator.

The best way to understand a DDoS attack is through the following metaphor: imagine a group of people crowding into a shop entrance, preventing access to legitimate consumers. In this way, the shop itself ends up being inaccessible.

How can DDoS Attacks Affect Your Business?

DDoS attacks are intended to make legitimate use of websites and web resources in general unavailable. Thus, the attacker is able to disrupt the activity of the attacked organization.

The main targets of these attacks are online services that we use frequently and contain sensitive data, such as internet banking, media, educational tools, medical management systems, e-commerce, etc.

The motivations behind attackers are not the same. Different groups have different reasons for carrying out DDoS attacks.

Attacks are sometimes carried out as a form of political activism. When government agencies are the victims, the agents generally seek to cause some type of economic or social instability.

In the case of massive attacks organized by large groups, DDoS can be used as a distraction tactic, directing the attention of authorities and technical teams to smaller attacks.

In other cases, the motivations may be strictly financial. For example, a malicious competitor could order a DDoS attack to make its service more attractive to consumers.

Or, more directly, the attacker can use the DDoS attack to extort a company and gain illicit profits.

In these cases, the malicious agent produces an attack to disable some digital service and charges a ransom to return the system to normality. These are the attacks known as RDDoS (ransom distributed denial-of-service).

Another tactic is to just threaten the organization with an attack. To convince the company to pay the ransom, the attacker can make an attack demonstration, a “sneak peek”, proving its disruptive capacity and, in this way, increasing their chances of profit from the fear and panic produced.

Unfortunately, the company does not always have an adequate protection system. Furthermore, contacting law enforcement authorities can be a time-consuming solution and cause even more trouble with invaders.

Most of the time, hackers are not even tracked, as they use cryptocurrency wallets to receive the ransom.

There is a whole lot of calculation to be done in the event of ransomware attacks. In fact, the answer to the simple question “should I or should I not pay the ransom?” can be more complicated than you think. See what factors to consider by clicking here.

The consequences of a DDoS attack can be disastrous. The instability of internal systems, for example, can make the production process more expensive or even totally hindered. On the other hand, the unavailability of websites accessed by the public can make it impossible to attract customers and make sales.