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In this article, you’ll learn the difference between a DoS attack and a DDoS attack, how they work, and what you can do to stay protected. All Hosted.com®’s cPanel Web Hosting and WordPress Hosting packages include DDoS Protection.
Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) are two of the most common and dangerous threats to online businesses. While both try to overwhelm websites and Web Hosting servers with too much traffic, and their names are very similar, it’s important to know how to tell them apart.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is a DoS Attack
A DoS attack originates from a single source that sends a flood of traffic or malformed requests to a site or web server, overloading it by consuming resources (Bandwidth, CPU, RAM). The end result is a slow-loading site that becomes inaccessible to legitimate visitors or crashes completely.
Common types of DoS attacks:
- Ping of Death: Sends excessively large data packets that overwhelm sites and servers.
- SYN Flood: Overloads a server with too many connection requests.
- Buffer Overflow: Drains server memory to cause a crash.
Because DoS attacks usually come from one machine, they are easier to spot and mitigate. Security tools like Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) can filter and block suspicious traffic patterns, requests, and IP addresses and restore normal access fairly quickly.
What is a DDoS Attack
A DDoS attack is similar to a DoS attack, but much larger in scope. These are typically executed using a botnet, a group of devices (computers, smartphones, and even networked appliances) infected with malware that the attacker controls to simultaneously send a huge amount of traffic and requests to a target. This means that, instead of coming from just one source, the attack can come from thousands.
Here are the main differences from a DoS attack. Because they come from multiple locations and IP addresses, detecting and blocking them is much more challenging. Large-scale attacks can generate enormous traffic spikes rapidly, overwhelming and crashing sites and servers before mitigation methods kick in.
They also work in different ways:
- Volumetric: Flooding your network connection with excessive traffic.
- Protocol-based: Exploiting how your system communicates.
- Application-layer: Overwhelms specific parts of your site, such as login pages.
DDoS attacks are harder to stop because the traffic comes from many different places. Blocking one IP address isn’t enough. Some last just a few minutes while others can go on for hours, days, or even weeks. In some extreme cases, attackers use short bursts of traffic over time to stay undetected.
Additional Information
How to Mitigate a DoS Attack
As mentioned above, because a DoS attack comes from one machine, it’s usually easier to detect and stop.
Install a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to monitor traffic and block malicious requests before they reach your server. It’s especially useful for filtering out unusual or suspicious patterns in real time.
Use IP Blocking to block the attacker’s IP address once it has been identified. Rate limiting sets limits on the number of requests that can be made within a certain time period. This helps prevent overloads caused by repeated requests.
How to Mitigate a DDoS Attack
Preventing DDoS attacks is harder and requires more advanced methods.
Cloud-based services can absorb massive amounts of malicious traffic before it reaches your server. They automatically filter out bot traffic and let only clean traffic through.;
CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) store static copies of your site content in multiple locations around the world, helping distribute incoming traffic and reduce pressure on your original server.
In both cases, sudden website traffic spikes are a warning sign, and early detection is key to a fast response.
Use tools to detect abnormal patterns and requests as well as monitor bandwidth, CPU usage, and incoming traffic. You can also use tools that identify “bad IPs” based on reputation and block them automatically.
What Makes DDoS Worse
Even short attacks can cost you money, harm your reputation, and cause frustration for your visitors, with longer attacks doing even more damage.
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI has significantly increased the number of attack vectors available. Many everyday devices are not well protected, allowing hackers to take control of them and add them to their botnets.
Millions of poorly secured devices, combined with the ease of using AI to control bots, have contributed to more powerful and accessible botnets, making DDoS attacks stronger and more frequent.
