Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection helps protect websites and hosting services from attacks that attempt to overwhelm servers or network resources with large amounts of malicious traffic.
The primary goal of a DDoS attack is usually to disrupt availability rather than gain direct access to a website. By overwhelming available resources, an attack can make a website slow, unstable, or temporarily unavailable to legitimate visitors.
SIRSTEVEHQ uses security measures within its hosting infrastructure to help detect and mitigate certain types of malicious and excessive traffic, helping improve the availability and resilience of hosted services.
What Is a DDoS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack occurs when a large number of devices, often part of a compromised network known as a botnet, send requests or network traffic toward a website, server, or other online service.
The volume of traffic can overwhelm available resources and may:
- Slow down a website.
- Make a website temporarily unavailable.
- Consume server or network resources.
- Disrupt online services.
- Prevent legitimate visitors from accessing the website.
Unlike normal traffic, DDoS traffic is generated with the intention of overwhelming or disrupting a service.
How Does DDoS Protection Work?
DDoS protection uses traffic monitoring and filtering technologies to identify patterns associated with malicious or excessive traffic.
Depending on the type of attack, protective systems may:
- Detect unusual traffic patterns.
- Filter malicious or unwanted traffic.
- Block traffic associated with known threats.
- Rate-limit excessive requests.
- Reduce the amount of malicious traffic reaching the server.
- Allow legitimate traffic to continue where possible.
The specific mitigation method depends on the type, size, and characteristics of the attack.
What Types of Attacks Can DDoS Protection Help Mitigate?
DDoS mitigation technologies can help reduce the impact of different types of attacks, including:
- Network flooding attacks.
- HTTP request floods.
- UDP floods.
- TCP SYN floods.
- Connection exhaustion attacks.
- Bot-generated traffic.
- Other high-volume or resource-exhaustion attacks.
Not every attack can be mitigated in the same way, and the available protection depends on the hosting environment and the characteristics of the attack.
Can DDoS Protection Prevent Every Attack?
No security solution can guarantee complete protection against every DDoS attack.
DDoS protection can significantly reduce the impact of many attacks, but very large, complex, or sophisticated attacks may still cause temporary service degradation or interruption.
The effectiveness of mitigation depends on factors such as the size, duration, type, and source of the attack, as well as the infrastructure being targeted.
Will DDoS Protection Affect Normal Visitors?
Under normal circumstances, legitimate visitors should not notice any difference.
DDoS protection is designed to identify and filter suspicious or excessive traffic while allowing legitimate requests to reach your website whenever possible.
In some situations, automated security measures may temporarily apply additional traffic controls when an attack or unusual traffic pattern is detected.
Does DDoS Protection Make My Website Faster?
DDoS protection is primarily designed to improve availability and resilience, not normal website performance.
If your website is slow when there is no DDoS attack, the cause may be related to factors such as:
- Website optimisation.
- Large or unoptimised images.
- Poorly coded plugins or applications.
- Resource-intensive processes.
- High legitimate traffic.
- Database performance.
- An unsuitable hosting environment.
DDoS protection should therefore not be considered a website speed optimisation service.
What Else Can I Do to Protect My Website?
DDoS protection is only one part of a broader security strategy. You should also:
- Keep your website software updated.
- Use strong and unique passwords.
- Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) where available.
- Use HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate.
- Remove unused plugins, themes, and applications.
- Install software only from trusted sources.
- Maintain regular website backups.
- Monitor your website for unusual activity.
Combining these practices with hosting-level security measures can provide a stronger overall security posture.
Need Help with a Possible DDoS Attack?
If you believe your website is experiencing unusual traffic, repeated service interruptions, or a possible DDoS attack, please open a support ticket through your SIRSTEVEHQ Client Area.
Include:
- Your domain name.
- When the issue started.
- Any error messages you received.
- Whether the issue is intermittent or continuous.
- Any unusual traffic or behaviour you have noticed.
- Any recent changes made to your website.
Our Support Team will investigate whether the issue may be related to your hosting environment and provide guidance on the appropriate next steps to help maintain the availability of your website.
