What are DDoS Attacks?
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. DDoS attackers typically use compromised computer systems that have been infected with a DDoS bot or malware as part of a botnet. The attacker controls the botnet and directs the bots to send overwhelming traffic to the victim’s servers, effectively shutting down service availability and accessibility to legitimate users.

Types of DDoS Attacks
There are three main types of DDoS attacks used by perpetrators:

Volumetric Attacks: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection aims to consume as much of the available bandwidth as possible and saturate the pipeline with a flood of junk Internet traffic. Common volumetric attacks include TCP SYN floods, User Datagram Protocol (UDP) floods and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) floods. These attacks overwhelm the target systems and network links with data packets.

Protocol Attacks: Instead of overloading the bandwidth, protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in protocols like HTTP and DNS to crash services and bring down websites. Common examples include Slowloris and DNS reflection attacks. Slowloris opens multiple TCP connections to a target web server but deliberately keeps them open by not completing the handshake process. Similarly, DNS reflection attack abuses open recursive DNS resolvers to overwhelm the target server.

Application Layer Attacks: This sophisticated class of DDoS attacks directly targets applications and services instead of overwhelming underlying network resources and protocols. Examples include SYN torrent attacks which mimic legitimate application use instead of simply flooding like volumetric attacks. Low and Slow HTTP floods is another type of application layer attack which open many connections slowly to cause server delays and disruptions without using much bandwidth.

Impact on Online Businesses
DDoS attacks can cripple online businesses by making critical services and websites unusable. Some obvious impacts of a successful DDoS attack are:

- Loss of Revenue: Downtime leads to loss of customers and transactions. E-commerce sites suffer losses when payment gateways go down due to attacks.

- Brand & Reputation Damage: Sustained outages create negative publicity and erode customer trust in the brand. Angry customers take to social media to vent their frustration.

- Operational Disruption: Attacks disrupt day-to-day operations like order fulfillment, recurring billing, support services which depend on stable online infrastructure.

- Legal & Regulatory Risks: Certain industries like financial services and healthcare have strict IT security and uptime mandates. Non-compliance due to outages can result in costly penalties.

- Diverted Resources: Defending against and recovering from DDoS attacks requires a significant investment of personnel, hardware and expertise which are a sunk cost for businesses.

- Intellectual Property Theft: Some DDoS attacks serve to distract security staff while hackers attempt to steal sensitive customer data and trade secrets.

Mitigating DDoS Threats
Given the scale and severity of impact, online businesses must take proactive measures to strengthen defenses against DDoS attacks. Some effective mitigation strategies are:

- DDoS Protection Services: Leverage cloud-based DDoS mitigation offerings which can absorb massive attacks and ensure business-critical applications remain available even during large volumetric floods. Services like Akamai Network can scrub DDoS traffic before it even reaches internal infrastructure.

- On-premise Solutions: For mission-critical always-on requirements, deploy on-premise DDoS mitigation appliances with scrubbing centers that filter DDoS traffic close to the source of attacks. Solution like Riverbed and Arbor Networks integrate well into the network edge.

- Bandwidth Provisioning: Ensure links to internet uplinks have sufficient available bandwidth headroom to absorb unexpected traffic surges during attacks without getting overwhelmed. Over-provision core internet connections where possible.

- Access Control Lists: Use access control lists (ACLs) on routers and firewalls to restrict incoming traffic to expected ports and protocols only. Block known malicious IP ranges responsible for reflection amplifier attacks proactively.

- Application Hardening: Follow secure coding standards and deploy regular security updates to plugin vulnerabilities attackers might exploit. Enable features like request throttling, input validation and timeout limits.

- Incident Response Plan: Have a well-defined incident response plan in place to detect attacks fast and initiate mitigation steps without delays. Coordinate response with upstream ISPs for multi-pronged defense.
 

As online commerce and digital services increasingly become the norm, businesses need to recognize DDoS attacks as a realistic threat to brand reputation and uninterrupted service delivery. Taking a proactive, multi-layered defense-in-depth approach which leverages both on-premise and cloud-based mitigation solutions is key to minimizing disruptions from DDoS attacks. With careful planning and investment, organizations can bolster their online security posture and stay operational even during large scale distributed denial of service attacks.

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Ravina Pandya, Content Writer, has a strong foothold in the market research industry. She specializes in writing well-researched articles from different industries, including food and beverages, information and technology, healthcare, chemical and materials, etc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravina-pandya-1a3984191)