Everything You Need to Know About DDoS Attacks: A Simple Explanation for Newbies

Picture yourself managing a boutique sole shop and out of nowhere, thousands of shoppers surge into your shop.

They are not there to buy anything

They just stand in the aisles block the doors and prevent real customers from entering

Exactly that scenario plays out during a DDoS Attack.

If you have ever thought of what a DDoS attack is and how it can cripple websites like Netflix or Twitter, you have your answer.

In this guide, I will simplify the concept of DDo S attacks, cover the different types, their purposes, and most importantly, how companies and even individuals can protect themselves.

No tech jargon no confusing diagrams just real talk that actually helps you understand

Let us dive in

What is a DDoS Attack

Let us start with the basics

What is a DDoS attack

DDoS: Distributed Denial of Services

Cyber security attacks have continuously evolved.DDoS attacks flooding your services is a REST API internal subsystem.

The result

The site slows down or crashes completely

No one can access it

It is like a digital traffic jam on steroids

And the scary part

It does not require breaking passwords or stealing data

Just overwhelming the system until it gives up

Statista also states that DDoS remains active in 2025 growing in regularity and remaining as one of the most critical attacks a business can experience.

According to Cloudflare over 13 million DDoS attacks were reported in the first half of the year alone

And they are getting bigger faster and harder to stop

But here is the good news

You do not need to be a network engineer to understand how they work

Think of the internet as a city

Servers are buildings roads are data connections and traffic is information

A DDoS attack is like sending thousands of fake cars to block every road leading to a single building

Emergency vehicles customers and employees cannot get through

The building is still there but it is unreachable

That is denial of service

And distributed means the attack comes from many different sources at once not just one computer

That makes it harder to stop

Steps on How DDoS Attacks Work

You might think hackers do this from a single powerful computer

But that is not how it works

Here is what actually happens behind the scenes

Step 1 The Hacker Builds a Botnet

A botnet is a network of infected devices

These can be computers phones security cameras even smart fridges

The hacker uses malware to take control of them without the owners knowing

One infected device is called a bot

Thousands together form a botnet

Some botnets have millions of devices

Step 2 The Hacker Chooses a Target

It could be a website a gaming server a bank or even a government agency

The goal is to take it offline

Step 3 The Attack Is Launched

The hacker sends a command to all bots in the network

Every bot starts sending fake requests to the target server

These are not real users just machines pretending to be

Step 4 The Server Gets Overwhelmed

The server has limited bandwidth and processing power

When too many requests come at once it cannot respond to any of them

It starts slowing down then freezing

Real users see errors like Site Not Available or Connection Timed Out

Step 5 The Service Goes Down

The website or app becomes unreachable

For businesses this means lost sales damaged reputation and angry customers

Some attacks last minutes others go on for days

And the worst part

The attack can come from anywhere in the world

And the devices doing the attacking belong to innocent people who have no idea their smart TV is part of a cyber war

DDoS Attacks: The Three Main Types

Not all DDoS attacks are the same

Some target the network others go after the application layer

Here are the three main types you need to know

Type	How It Works	Example	Hard to Stop
Volume Based	Floods the bandwidth with junk data	UDP flood ICMP flood	Yes
Protocol	Exploits server resources like firewalls	SYN flood Ping of Death	Very
Application Layer	Targets specific apps like web servers	HTTP flood Slowloris	Extremely

1 Volume Based Attacks

These are the most common

The attacker sends massive amounts of data like UDP or ICMP packets to consume all available bandwidth

It is like trying to fill a bathtub with a firehose

The pipe cannot handle it

2 Protocol Attacks

These target network infrastructure like firewalls and load balancers

A SYN flood for example sends thousands of fake connection requests that never finish

The server waits and waits using up memory until it crashes

3 Application Layer Attacks

These are the most dangerous

They mimic real user behavior like loading a webpage

Because the traffic looks normal it is hard to block

And they require less power to take down a site

A single attacker can sometimes do it

Real World DDoS Attacks That Made Headlines

DDoS attacks are not just theory

They have taken down some of the biggest names online

GitHub Attack 2018

In 2018 GitHub one of the largest code hosting platforms was hit with a 1 36 Tbps attack

That is 1 36 terabits per second of junk data

It came from thousands of hijacked servers using a technique called memcached amplification

GitHub was down for 10 minutes before defenses kicked in

Amazon Web Services 2020

A massive 2 3 Tbps attack targeted AWS

It used CLDAP reflection to amplify traffic

Luckily Amazon’s systems absorbed it without major downtime

Banking Sector Attacks 2024

In 2024 a group of hackers launched coordinated DDoS attacks on 12 major banks in Europe

The attacks lasted for days and were used as a distraction while they tried to breach internal systems

Customers could not access online banking

The banks lost millions in revenue and trust

Gaming Servers Under Fire

Online games like Call of Duty and Fortnite face DDoS attacks every day

Players use them to knock rivals offline during tournaments

Some gaming ISPs now offer DDoS protection as a paid feature

The message is clear

No one is immune

Why Do Hackers Launch DDoS Attacks

Money is not the only motive

Here are the top 5 reasons hackers do it

1 Extortion (DDoS for Ransom)

Hackers attack a company then demand payment to stop

They often send emails like Pay us 50 000 in Bitcoin or we will bring your site down again

Some companies pay because downtime costs more than the ransom

2 Competitive Sabotage

A business might hire hackers to take down a rival during a product launch or sale

It gives them a temporary edge

3 Hacktivism

Groups like Anonymous use DDoS attacks to protest governments or corporations

They see it as digital protest

4 Distraction

A DDoS attack can be a smokescreen

While the IT team deals with the flood of traffic hackers sneak in through another hole to steal data

5 Just for Fun

Some attackers do it to show off or win bragging rights in hacker forums

They call it DDoSing as a service or rent a botnet for a few dollars

And yes you can actually rent a botnet on the dark web for as little as 10 per hour

Signs Your Website or Network Is Under Attack

How do you know if you are being hit by a DDoS attack

Here are the red flags

• Sudden spike in traffic from unknown locations
• Website is slow or completely unresponsive
• Specific pages or features stop working
• Unusual traffic patterns (like all requests coming at the same second)
• Firewall or server logs show massive connection attempts
• Users report connection timeouts or errors

If you run a website use tools like Google Analytics Cloudflare or Pingdom to monitor traffic

A normal traffic increase grows gradually

A DDoS attack looks like a straight vertical wall

The Guide for Protecting Yourself from DDoS Attacks

You do not need a billion dollar security team to defend yourself

Here are 10 proven ways to reduce your risk

1 Use a DDoS Protection Service

Companies like Cloudflare Akamai and AWS Shield can absorb attacks before they reach your server

They act like a firewall in the cloud

2 Increase Bandwidth

More bandwidth means you can handle larger floods

It is not a fix but it buys you time

3 Configure Firewalls and Routers

Set rules to drop suspicious traffic like too many SYN requests

Limit connection rates from single IPs

4 Use Load Balancers

Distribute traffic across multiple servers so one does not get overwhelmed

5 Enable Rate Limiting

Limit how many requests a user can make in a minute

This stops bots from flooding your site

6 Monitor Traffic in Real Time

Use tools like Nagios or Datadog to get alerts when something looks off

7 Have an Incident Response Plan

Know who to call what to do and how to communicate with users

Practice it regularly

8 Keep Software Updated

Old software has vulnerabilities that make DDoS attacks easier

9 Block Bogon IPs

These are fake or reserved IP addresses that should never be sending traffic

Blocking them reduces noise

10 Educate Your Team

Make sure your IT staff can recognize the signs and act fast

For home users

Update your router firmware do not use default passwords and consider a mesh network with built in security

DDoS Attacks and Myths: Debunked

Let us clear up some confusion

Myth 1 Only Big Companies Get Targeted

False Small websites blogs and even personal gaming servers get attacked every day

Myth 2 DDoS Attacks Steal Your Data

Not usually The goal is to take the site down not hack into it

But it can be used as a distraction for data theft

Myth 3 You Can Stop It by Disconnecting

Not helpful If your server is down the attack wins

And when you reconnect it might start again

Myth 4 Antivirus Can Stop DDoS

No Antivirus protects your device not your website or network

Myth 5 DDoS Attacks Are Impossible to Prevent

Wrong You cannot prevent them 100 but you can make them fail

With the right tools most attacks can be absorbed or filtered

Cyber Security Experts’ Insights

I asked top professionals how they deal with DDoS threats

Queries for the General Audience

Look the internet is a powerful tool

But with great power comes great risk

UnderstandingDual Denial of Service Attacks is not just for IT teams

It is for anyone who runs a website plays online games or relies on digital services

You do not have to be an expert

Just be aware know the signs and take simple steps to protect yourself

Because in the world of cyber threats

Being prepared is the best defense