With the development of digital technology capabilities for businesses, cybercrime is actively spreading as a new method of competing. Among all possible cyber threats, DDoS attacks are the most dangerous, as they disrupt not only the technical aspects but also the reputation of your company.

What are DDos attacks?

Each of our projects utilizes a multitude of online resources for automation and efficient communication: email systems, websites, payment platforms. Their integration significantly streamlines business operations; however, it necessitates robust protection against DDoS attacks.

A DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) is a cyber attack whose primary goal is to disrupt or completely halt the operation of a website, network, or other online services of a company for an extended period of time.

During a DDoS attack, the IT infrastructure of a business is targeted simultaneously from a large number of devices, which is why it's called a distributed attack. The DDoS attack operates in the following manner:

  • requests (spoofed traffic) flood the website or IP/HTTP services from a vast number of different sources simultaneously;

  • the uncontrolled surge of requests exhausts the server or network due to overload, gradually slowing down their operation;

  • stopping the influx of requests by blocking a single source is impossible, and the overwhelmed server hinders legitimate traffic;

  • the business loses its efficiency as potential clients cannot access the website, and employees struggle to access essential systems.

Attackers initiate a DDoS attack on one or multiple layers of the target's network connection. Internet connectivity operates on 7 distinct levels according to the OSI model. Each OSI layer has its protocols (communication rules), performs specific functions, and interacts with others. This ensures seamless connection and information exchange across diverse devices without disruption. If a DDoS attack compromises even a single layer, the entire system will malfunction.

Based on impact on different levels of the OSI model, the three most common types of DDoS attacks today are:

  • Volumetric attacks. Executed at layers 3 and 4 and characterized by massive traffic generation. Their greatest danger lies in the fact that this traffic is initially perceived as normal. Subsequently, it consumes the entire bandwidth of the target channel, causing congestion and blocking access for regular traffic.

Volumetric attacks include UDP flood and ICMP flood. In UDP flooding, a large number of UDP packets from various forged IP addresses are directed at the target server, which processes each packet, depleting its resources.

  • Protocol attacks. Target limitations and vulnerabilities in internet connection protocols at layers 3 and 4. In this case, overload occurs not by a massive volume of traffic. Attackers act precisely: exploiting network vulnerabilities, they send connection requests from just a few IP addresses, rendering the target service unavailable.

Such DDoS attacks include SYN flood and RST-Fin flood. SYN attacks occur at the TCP protocol level, where the server experiences heavy load due to the influx of fake SYN packets without the necessary sender confirmation.

  • Application-level attacks. Executed at the highest Layer 7 and aimed at specific services operating on the server: websites, APIs, databases, financial services, communication systems. A large amount of traffic with standard URL requests is directed towards the target page, consuming limited resources: disk space and available memory.

Examples of such attacks are HTTP flood and Slowloris. In an HTTP flood, a web server can be bombarded with numerous HTTP requests until its capacity is fully saturated, rendering users unable to access the website.

How to protect business from DDos attacks?

According to Forbes research, since the beginning of 2023, the number of DDoS attacks has increased by approximately 40%, with the financial sector and e-commerce businesses being the primary targets. DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly dangerous, resulting in numerous negative consequences for businesses:

  • partial website downtime makes it impossible to place orders for your products or services;

  • significant increase in expenses if your servers are hosted in the cloud and the traffic is billable;

  • prolonged website unavailability erodes customer trust, and even after restoration, they might still shift to competitors;

  • website ranking on search engines drops, reducing its visibility and organic traffic volume;

  • competitors undermine your company by gaining access to corporate information and customer databases.

A DDoS attack can last several days and cost a business over $100,000 an hour. That is why investing in a reliable security system will definitely be justified and will help maintain the stable operation of your company.

When we talk about protection against DDoS attacks, we mean actions aimed at controlling and filtering all traffic, taking into account its IP addresses and content.

The most reliable method to ensure such protection is to connect with services specialized in DDoS protection. In our projects, we use Cloudflare for this purpose. This service acts as an intermediary between the user and the target server: the traffic undergoes verification first, and only filtered requests from genuine clients are directed to our server. Cloudflare also conceals the actual IP address of the server.

Cybercriminals attempt to bypass standard security protocols, and not long ago, one of our successfully launched projects experienced a powerful DDoS attack. Within 2 hours, approximately 8 billion requests were received, causing the platform to become inaccessible in certain regions. To halt the attack, our team devised custom rules to regulate the incoming traffic. This experience enabled us to create an even stronger defense against DDoS.

An advanced security system is built not only on the implementation of Cloudflare and the use of built-in mechanisms. We have established a connection between Cloudflare and our CI/CD update system, as well as configuring additional protection filters.

Thanks to the creation of a special script, all new URLs and APIs are automatically gathered and transmitted to Cloudflare for verification. And this process takes place with each website update. This new system protects not only the entire website but also each individual page or module, significantly enhancing the project's resilience to DDoS attacks. You can find out all the details by clicking on the link https://flawlessmlm.com/en/auto_mlm.

DDoS attacks are a powerful tool in the hands of malicious actors, and only the implementation of reliable protection will help preserve the stability and reputation of your business. That's why the FlawlessMLM team continually enhances their security system and DDoS protection, utilizing unique and proven solutions in their projects.