On the internet as in life, dishonest and malicious people can cross your path and cause you harm. Hacking, attempts to recover user passwords, theft of bank details are all hacker maneuvers aimed at generating profit.
But among these ill-intentioned people, some will not go so far as to harm you, and will opt for what is called a DDOS attack.
What is a DDoS attack?
The acronym DDOS stands for "Distributed Denial of Service". A so-called DDOS attack is carried out by a network of machines, controlled by a hacker. These machines are controlled by the hacker thanks to malware, malicious software, which he has subtly deployed over time, until he creates a real network. It is therefore logical to call this network of infected devices "botnet".
Since bots are designed to obey humans, the cybercriminal will program their botnet to flood the attacked service with an incredible number of requests, until it becomes unavailable. Hence the name "denial of service": making a site or service unavailable by submitting so many simultaneous requests that it can no longer technically function.
Targets of DDoS attacks
When we talk about "service", we must understand the word in its broad sense. DDoS can concern any type of service present on the Internet: server, networks, website, infrastructure, application, etc. A well-controlled denial of service attack can defeat all of these types of services. Your Wordpress site is therefore not immune to this kind of hacking.
It should be noted that with the explosion of connected objects, DDOS attacks are becoming more powerful and more frequent. Indeed, hackers manage to hack and add these insecure objects to their botnets, which makes them more efficient and faster in execution.
How to fight a DDOS attack on Wordpress?
The best way to stop a DDoS attack on your Wordpress site is to focus on prevention. Indeed, if you don't give hackers the opportunity to carry out their attack, you won't need to stop one one one day... in theory.
First of all, you will need to think about updating your version of Wordpress regularly. Secondly, you probably know this, but Wordpress contains a lot of plugins (extensions) aimed at securing your website. Some of them, such as Fail2ban or Jetpack, can be effective in avoiding denial of service attacks.
To further enhance the prevention of this type of attack, you can also check if your hosting provider contains technology to effectively combat DDOS attacks.
If, despite all your precautions, you suffer an attack and your site is no longer accessible to your users, the best solution is to call your hosting provider to find out more about the origin of the attack, and to help you block the IP addresses of the botnets.
If your hosting provider is not able to help you, and you do not have the IT knowledge required to free yourself from a DDOS attack, you can call in a professional. At Studio Cassette, we provide help against DDOS attacks as part of Our maintenance contract . Do not hesitate to contact us to learn more about our offers.
You now know everything there is to know about these famous DDOS attacks on Wordpress. Remember to secure your site well beforehand to avoid risks, and don't forget that in the event of an attack, there are solutions to regain control of your site.
