🌐 DDoS Attack: Crashing Websites With Overwhelming Traffic
A DDoS Attack (Distributed Denial of Service) is a powerful cyber weapon used to flood websites, servers, or networks with fake traffic — making them slow, unstable, or completely offline. It’s simple, brutal, and hard to stop.
🧠 What Is a DDoS Attack?
A DDoS Attack involves thousands (sometimes millions) of devices — often part of a botnet — sending massive amounts of traffic to a single target. The goal is to overwhelm the system so it can't serve real users.
⚙️ How It Works
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A hacker builds or rents a botnet (infected computers/devices)
They command all bots to flood the target with traffic
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The target’s server or bandwidth is exhausted
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Website or service goes offline or becomes unusable
🔥 Common Types
📥 Volumetric Attacks – Overwhelm bandwidth with junk traffic
🧠 Protocol Attacks – Exploit network weaknesses (e.g., SYN floods)
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🌐 Application Layer Attacks – Target specific services like login pages or search bars
⚠️ Real-World Examples
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GitHub (2018) – Hit by a record-breaking 1.35 Tbps DDoS attack
Dyn DNS (2016) – Took down major sites like Twitter, Netflix, and PayPal
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Estonia (2007) – Massive cyberattacks disrupted government services
🛡️ How to Defend Against It
🧱 Use firewalls and DDoS protection services (e.g., Cloudflare)
📊 Monitor traffic for unusual spikes
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🔄 Set up rate limiting and filtering
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🧰 Work with your hosting provider for emergency response
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🔒 Secure your own devices — don’t be part of a botnet
✅ Final Thoughts
A DDoS attack doesn’t steal data — it disrupts everything. Whether it's to protest, blackmail, or distract from another hack, it’s a real and growing threat.
Stay prepared. Because when the traffic hits, it hits hard.