What is a DDoS Attack?

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Have you ever experienced highly intense traffic on your regular route that you travel daily? Well, all the unexpected vehicles coming over this route are the main cause of this traffic jam causing inconvenience to the daily passengers in reaching their respective areas.

Same is the case with so-called DDoS attack. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is like the traffic jam that’s occurring on our online website route caused by the unexpected botnets vehicles, making the genuine visitors and customers accessing or reaching the destination, which is your website.

All about DDoS attack – What and Why?

DDoS-Attack

A DDoS attack takes place when an assembly of system bottlenecks the bandwidth and resources of the intended web server(s). These group of systems referred to as ‘botnet’ targets to shut down the webserver or website by bombarding it with a huge mass of unusual or fake traffic that is beyond its capacity, as a result leading to shutting down or crashing of the webserver. Well this defines is DDoS attack, now the question is why does it happen? I mean why all of a sudden some army of botnets would bombard your website with unprecedented traffic that also with the sole intention to close it down? Now there can be multiple reasons behind this. You may be a tough competitor for someone or attacking with a motive to take revenge or for that matter, your site may be a targeted victim of extortion or data theft.

Moreover, to carry out a DDoS attack the criminal need not undergo some major setup and preparation since the DDoS can be easily bought or hired. Shocking but true! You can actually shop for it by spending as little as the US $5 to an upper range of US $400 depending upon the severity and coverage of the attack. Sounds quite scandalous.

And wait, you’ll get a variety too. DDoS attacks can be Volume based, Application layer attacks and Protocol type attack. Among all the three, volume-based attacks are a popular choice of hackers since it targets and engulfs the whole of the site’s bandwidth, leaving it completely shut down. Resultant, site is not accessible to the visitors for hours or it can stretch for several days.

5 critical factors how DDoS attack hampers your business.

Anyone could be vulnerable to these DDoS attack. Particularly the small scale spurring up businesses who tend to overlook or neglect their security can easily let these attacks to pierce in. besides, targeting a group of small businesses is far easier than in contrast to robust and large scale business. Whatever may be the case, your business gets severely affected by the following ways:

  1. Data Theft

It’s reported that most of the attacks on business websites are intended for stealing user’s data. This stolen data is then utilized for threating customers for high ransom or misusing their identity.

  1. Loss of potential Customers

Collapsing or crashing of the website straight away indicates that your website will be no longer accessible to your audience. The customers takes no time in looking for yet another alternative, making a drop in your visitor count. And even if your website resumes, chances are rare that you’ll regain these customers back.

  1. Revenue Loss

Inaccessibility to your site will directly impact your business. DDoS attacks make the customers take their hands off from your website at the same time leaving your business under heavy revenue loss.

  1. Drop in reputation

The online marketplace is highly competitive. Once your website confronts an attack, it reaches a critical phase which if prolonged for even a few days can swoosh your business down the race. Building the reputation takes months and years whereas it just takes a DDoS attack to destroy it.

Once you are armoured with the concept and understanding of DDoS attack it’s highly recommended that you take strict precautions against it like implementing robust security standards and firewalls, regular scans, keeping complex passwords and updating your software.

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