What it is
A distributed denial-of-service attack sends overwhelming traffic from many machines at once, usually a botnet of hacked devices, to knock a site or service offline. It doesn’t break in or steal data; it just makes the site unavailable while it lasts.
How likely is it?
Targeted attacks mostly hit larger companies, gaming, finance and organizations someone is angry at. A small business is more likely to go down from a hosting problem, an expired domain or certificate, or a hack than from a DDoS. Still, sites on cheap shared hosting can be knocked out as collateral when a neighbor is attacked.
Protection
- Hosting served through a global network (CDN) that absorbs floods. Many offer this by default.
- Monitoring, so you know immediately if the site stops answering.
- Your booking, phone and Google listing details also available elsewhere, so customers can reach you if the site is down.
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.