What is a DDoS attack?

DDoS attacks are a common cyberthreat that can cost you thousands and take down your website. Even more alarming, they’re incredibly easy for cybercriminals to launch, and can lead to an expensive fallout for unprotected website owners. The good news: DDoS attacks are easily prevented with a web application firewall (WAF).

What is a DDoS attack?

DDoS, short for distributed denial of service, is an attack that makes a site unavailable by overwhelming it with “fake” requests and traffic. This can slow your website or crash the server it is hosted on, which takes down your site as well.

Downtime can be devastatingly expensive for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Website downtime can cost as much as $427 per minute, and DDoS attacks cost an average of $120,000.

DDoS attacks are also favored by cybercriminals because they are extremely inexpensive and can be purchased online for as little as a dollar a minute. Unfortunately, once you’re a target, you’re likely to be attacked again – studies show that two-thirds of all DDoS targets were hit repeatedly.

Preventing a DDoS Attack

Preventing DDoS attacks is easier and more cost-effective than trying to weather them. A web application firewall (WAF) can be used to secure your website against the largest and smartest DDoS attacks. Be sure the DDoS protection you use accurately blocks attacks without impacting legitimate traffic. SiteLock TrueShield WAF blocks sophisticated threats with 99.99 percent accuracy while allowing your visitors to access your site without issue. TrueShield also improves your site’s loading times with our content delivery network (CDN). Additionally, SiteLock offers a website scanner that finds and removes known malware automatically, so that you’ll be fully protected in the event a malware infection occurs. Get set up and start blocking DDoS attacks today – chat with us, shop plans online or give us a call anytime 24/7/365 at 855.378.6200.