What is DDoS Protection?
Measures to defend against Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, where attackers flood your application with massive amounts of traffic to overwhelm and crash it.
In plain English
A DDoS attack is like a thousand people calling a restaurant at once to make fake reservations, so legitimate customers can't get through. DDoS protection is like a phone system that identifies and filters out the fake calls while still connecting real customers.
How it works
DDoS attacks overwhelm your server with traffic from many sources simultaneously (a 'botnet'). Protection works by absorbing and filtering this traffic before it reaches your server. CDN providers like Cloudflare distribute your site across global servers that can absorb massive traffic. Traffic is analyzed in real-time — legitimate requests pass through while malicious traffic is dropped or challenged.
Why it matters for AI-built apps
AI-built apps often run on single servers without any traffic protection or scaling capability. Even a small DDoS attack can take them completely offline. Competitors, disgruntled users, or random bot traffic can cause outages that damage your reputation and lose customers. Basic DDoS protection from a CDN like Cloudflare is free and takes minutes to set up.
Common issues
No CDN or DDoS protection at all (direct IP exposure), application-layer attacks that target expensive endpoints (like search or signup), not rate-limiting API endpoints, no auto-scaling to handle traffic spikes, and DNS not configured to hide origin server IP addresses.
Best practices
Put your app behind a CDN like Cloudflare that includes DDoS protection. Never expose your origin server's IP address directly. Implement rate limiting on all endpoints. Use auto-scaling to handle legitimate traffic spikes. Rate-limit expensive operations (database queries, email sends). Have a runbook for DDoS incidents. Monitor traffic patterns for anomalies.
Frequently asked questions
Can a small startup really be targeted by DDoS attacks?
Absolutely. DDoS-for-hire services cost as little as $10 and require no technical skill. Competitors, hacktivists, disgruntled users, or even automated bots can target any site. Even unintentional traffic spikes (like going viral on social media) can have DDoS-like effects if your infrastructure isn't prepared.
What's the cheapest way to protect against DDoS?
Cloudflare's free tier provides excellent DDoS protection. Point your DNS to Cloudflare, and they'll filter traffic before it reaches your server. This takes about 15 minutes to set up. For most startups, this free tier is sufficient. Also implement rate limiting on your API endpoints as an additional layer.
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