How to deal with DDoS attacks for your business?

A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack is a type of cyberattack where attackers try to overload a website, network, or other electronic resource. The goal is to prevent its normal operation. The basic principle of such an attack is that a large number of requests or traffic simultaneously arrive at the targeted object, which leads to overload and denial of service to legitimate users.

Analytics demonstrate a steady and significant increase in the number and intensity of DDoS in various areas, particularly in e-commerce. Attackers activate all their efforts on the eve of important sales when ordinary customers intend to place many orders. Such actions hide several intentions, such as unfair competition and “for the thrill of it”. Also, during times of increased user activity, it is much easier to achieve success with less effort.

DDoS attacks are dangerous for online businesses:

• Service interruptions: An attacked website or service may become unavailable to users, resulting in loss of revenue, reputation, and customer loss.
• Financial losses: The inability to conduct business online during an attack can lead to significant financial losses. Most companies today depend on online platforms to conduct transactions and sell their products or services.
• Data loss: In some cases, DDoS attacks can be accompanied by other types of cyberattacks, such as information leakage or denial of service, which can lead to the loss of confidential information.
• Erosion of trust: If an attack occurs repeatedly or too often, it can lead to a loss of trust among users and customers in the company or brand.
• Cost of recovery: After a DDoS attack, it can take time and resources to restore system performance, which can also result in significant costs.

Thus, DDoS attacks pose a serious threat to online businesses because of their ability to make websites and services unavailable, cause large financial losses, and psychologically damage companies' reputations.

How do DDoS attacks work?

Imagine your website as a narrow road. On a normal day, a certain number of cars drive along it, and everything moves smoothly. But during a DDoS attack, a huge number of cars suddenly enter the road, creating a traffic jam that prevents others from passing. This can cause your website to become inaccessible.

DDoS attacks are organized through a network of computers or other devices that are controlled by attackers and used to send a large number of requests or traffic to a target server or network at the same time. Here are the main methods of organizing DDoS attacks:

• Botnets: This is the most common way to organize DDoS attacks. Attackers infect a large number of computers, take them over and make them part of a botnet. Each computer in the botnet can be used to send traffic to a target server or network. These computers are often assembled by infecting them with viruses or malware that are installed without the owners' knowledge.
• Amplification attacks: Protocols or services are used that generate a large volume of response to a small request. For example, in UDP (User Datagram Protocol) attacks, attackers use existing request-response servers to send a response to the targeted address, increasing the volume of traffic.
• Synchronized attacks: Attackers coordinate multiple attack sources to send traffic to a target server or network simultaneously. This can include using different types of traffic (e.g., HTTP, DNS, ICMP) to maximize the load on the system.
• Application Layer attacks: These attacks target vulnerabilities or limitations in the software used on the server. For example, attacks on HTTP or HTTPS can be aimed at exceeding the server's request processing capacity, resulting in a denial of service.
• DNS attacks: These are directed at the DNS (Domain Name System) and can include attacks such as DNS amplification, DNS record modification, or request flooding, which leads to denial of service for legitimate users.

Attackers can rent botnets or use their own malware builds to organize DDoS attacks. They can also use anonymization services or networks, such as Tor, to hide their identity during an attack.

All of these methods are aimed at achieving the goal of overloading the resources of the target server or network to make them inaccessible to legitimate users.

This was all quite interesting information. But for you, as a website owner, another thing is much more important - how to prevent the problem? We have collected several effective algorithms for you.

1. Limiting the number of requests from one IP

Rate Limiting is one of the simplest and most effective ways to protect against DDoS attacks. This is a method in which a server or proxy server rejects requests if their number from a single IP address exceeds a set limit within a certain period of time. This approach allows you to:

• Reduce the load on the server: Limiting the number of requests helps to avoid overloading server resources, which allows you to maintain a stable service.
• Identify suspicious activity: If there are too many requests coming from one IP, this may indicate malicious activity, and such requests can be blocked or subject to detailed analysis.
• Prevent automated attacks: Automated DDoS tools often send a large number of requests from one or more IP addresses. Rate Limiting helps to limit their impact.

There are several WordPress plugins that can be used to run Rate Limiting. The most popular among them are:

• WP-Throttle: This plugin allows you to limit the number of requests based on IP address, user agent, and other factors.
• Login Lockdown: This plugin prevents brute force attacks on your login page by limiting the number of login attempts within a certain period of time.
• Limit Login Attempts: This plugin is similar to Login Lockdown, but it offers more features, such as the ability to block IP addresses after a certain number of failed login attempts.

If you're familiar with PHP or are willing to bring in a programmer, you can write your own code to run Rate Limiting. This gives you more control over how Rate Limiting works, but it can be more complicated than using a plugin.

2. Web Application Firewall (WAF)

This is a specialized firewall that protects web applications from various types of attacks, including DDoS. WAF works at the HTTP/HTTPS traffic level and has the following advantages:

• Traffic filtering: The WAF analyzes traffic in real time, detecting and blocking suspicious requests that may be part of a DDoS attack.
• Protection against specific vulnerabilities: In addition to DDoS attacks, the WAF can protect against threats such as SQL injections, XSS (cross-site scripting), and others.
• Easy integration: A WAF integrates seamlessly with existing web applications and infrastructure, providing an additional layer of protection without significant system changes.

To use this protection for your WordPress site, you can use plugins:

• Wordfence Security: This plugin offers a wide range of security features, including WAF, firewall, malware scanning, and more.
• Sucuri Security: This plugin is similar to Wordfence Security, but it offers some additional features like vulnerability scanning and DDoS protection.
• Cloudflare: This web service offers a free WAF that can be used to protect your WordPress website.

Some hosting providers offer WAF services as part of their hosting plans. This can be a good option if you don't want to install and manage your own WAF plugin. Look for this option when looking for hosting options.

3. Intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS)

These are comprehensive solutions that combine threat detection (IDS) and intrusion prevention (IPS) functions. They provide:

• Monitoring of network activity: IDPS continuously monitors network traffic, analyzing it for anomalies and suspicious activity.
• Automatic response: If a threat is detected, the system can automatically take measures to neutralize it, such as blocking traffic from specific IP addresses or network segments.
• Flexible settings: IDPS can be configured to detect and prevent specific types of attacks, including DDoS, through the use of signatures and heuristic methods.

To apply this protection on WordPress, you can also use plugins to increase the online security of resources - Wordfence Security, Sucuri Security, SiteLock. And also, some hosts have built-in IDPS. The choice is yours.

4. Scalable and distributed infrastructure also helps to combat DDoS attacks

One of the most effective methods of countering DDoS attacks is to use a scalable and distributed infrastructure:

• Scalable infrastructure allows you to adapt resources depending on the load, providing the necessary capacity to handle a large number of requests. Cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure offer automatic scaling of resources in response to increased traffic. This allows you to quickly increase server capacity during an attack.
• Distributed infrastructure avoids concentrating the load on a single server or data center. This reduces the likelihood of the entire system being disabled during an attack. The use of load balancers allows you to evenly distribute traffic between different servers. This helps to avoid overloading individual nodes.
• Distributed infrastructure involves the placement of resources in different geographical locations, which provides an additional level of protection against DDoS attacks. Thanks to the use of a CDN (Content Delivery Network), traffic is distributed among numerous servers located around the world. This reduces the load on the main servers and ensures fast delivery of content to users, even during an attack.
• Distributed infrastructure allows you to isolate and localize attacks, limiting their impact on other parts of the system. For example, if an attack targets servers in one geographic area, other servers remain available.
• Distributed infrastructure allows you to back up data and quickly restore services in the event of a failure. This provides an additional level of resistance to attacks.

The combination of scalable and distributed infrastructure creates a powerful defense mechanism against DDoS attacks. There are several ways to implement this strategy for WordPress websites:

• Use a hosting provider with a scalable infrastructure: Some hosting providers offer hosting plans that are specifically designed for WordPress and include scalable servers and networks. This can be a good option if you expect your website to grow quickly.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network): A CDN is a distributed network of servers that caches your website in different locations around the world. This can help speed up your website for users who are far away from your web server. Popular CDNs include Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, and Akamai.
• Hire a load balancer: This is a device or software that distributes traffic between multiple web servers. It can help prevent any one server from being overloaded and ensure high availability of your website. You can try HAProxy, Nginx, AWS Elastic Load Balancing, or similar.
• Use caching: This is the process of storing data in temporary storage so that it can be retrieved quickly without having to reload it from the web server. Popular services are WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache.
• Apply autoscaling: This is a feature that automatically adds or removes web servers from your pool based on traffic load. This can help you save money and ensure that your website is always available. You may be interested in services like AWS Auto Scaling, Google Cloud Platform Autoscaling, Heroku.

The best way to integrate scalable and distributed infrastructure for your WordPress website will depend on your specific needs and budget. It is important to thoroughly test any changes you make to your infrastructure to ensure that they work correctly and fulfill their function.

5. Monitor suspicious traffic behavior

Traffic monitoring involves continuously analyzing the incoming and outgoing data passing through the network. The main aspects of traffic monitoring include:

• Traffic volume analysis: Allows you to detect sudden increases in traffic that could be a sign of a DDoS attack.
• Traffic source analysis: Detecting suspicious IP addresses or regions with an abnormally high number of requests helps identify potential attack sources.
• Traffic type analysis: By examining the types of requests and protocols used, you can detect unusual patterns that may indicate an attack.

Real-time traffic monitoring allows you to detect anomalies and suspicious activity in the early stages of an attack. This allows you to respond quickly to threats, reducing their impact. Modern monitoring systems can automatically block suspicious traffic using security rules and policies. This helps prevent server overload and ensure uninterrupted service operation. Monitoring helps to identify patterns typical of botnets used for DDoS attacks. This allows you to block traffic from infected devices and minimize risks. Analysis of monitoring data allows you to identify weaknesses in the system and improve security policies to prevent future attacks. Traffic monitoring systems can integrate with other security tools, such as web application firewalls (WAFs), intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), which provides a comprehensive approach to protecting against DDoS attacks.

There are many tools and technologies used to monitor traffic. For example, NetFlow and sFlow, IDS/IPS systems, Wireshark, Nagios, Zabbix, CDNs, and cloud providers.

6. Use secure network access control andly diagnose it

Access control is critical to protecting networks and services from unauthorized access and attacks. Key aspects of strong access control include:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): The use of multi-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to verify their identity through several independent factors (password, SMS code, biometric data). This significantly reduces the risk of account compromise.
• Roles and access policies: Defining clear roles and access policies for users ensures that only authorized individuals have access to critical systems and data. This helps limit the ability of attackers to use resources for DDoS attacks.
• Network segmentation: Network segmentation involves dividing the network into isolated segments, which limits the spread of attacks between segments and reduces the impact of potential threats.
• Access monitoring: Continuous monitoring of access attempts to systems and resources allows you to quickly identify suspicious activity and respond to potential threats.

Reliable access control reduces the risk of unauthorized access to systems that can be used to launch or support DDoS attacks. Regular security audits are an important tool for identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring compliance with security policies. It allows you to identify weaknesses in the infrastructure that can be used to launch DDoS attacks. This includes analyzing network configurations, server settings, and access policies. Based on it, you can assess the effectiveness of current security measures and identify the need to improve or update them. The audit ensures that security policies and practices comply with internal company standards and external regulatory requirements. This helps to avoid fines and other sanctions.

Conclusions

DDoS attacks are a serious threat to businesses that use the Internet for their operations. It is better to think about protection against cybercrime in advance, using algorithms for controlling requests from a single IP address, tracking and analyzing traffic, scalable and distributed infrastructure, IDPS, and implementing access control to sensitive parts of the network. All this helps to avoid reputational and financial losses due to DDoS attacks.

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