Although it’s pretty much unlikely that any high profile hacktivists are going to be targeting your website via a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack anytime soon, that’s not necessarily grounds for sitting back relaxed and complacent without a backup / protection plan. DDoS attacks are becoming more prevalent and much easier to execute thanks improvement in technology, bandwidth and accessibility to tools and information on how to do it. We continue to see big brands like Sony get brought down momentarily by these attacks, and even the CIA’s website suffered this pain in 2012. It’s a serious threat.
For clarification, DDoS attacks happen through an overpowering of numerous computers, usually through the use of bots, that continuously send traffic to an IP address or website. As simple as this might seem, the effects can be brutal to a website. What’s worse is that the typical common security protocols that are set up to defend against hacking and intrusion just don’t work against DDoS attacks and taking matters into your own hands, whether it’s through WordPress security plugins or code tweaks and improvements are not sufficient. [Read more…]