DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

What Is a DDoS Attack?

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack aims to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. Unlike a simple denial-of-service (DoS) attack from a single source, a DDoS attack coordinates thousands or millions of compromised devices, known as a botnet, to flood the target simultaneously. The sheer volume of requests exhausts the server's resources, bandwidth, or both, causing outages for legitimate users.

Types of DDoS Attacks

• Volumetric attacks flood the network with massive amounts of traffic (UDP floods, DNS amplification), measured in Gbps.
• Protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in network protocols (SYN floods, Ping of Death), measured in packets per second.
• Application-layer attacks target specific services with seemingly legitimate requests (HTTP GET/POST floods), measured in requests per second. These are harder to distinguish from real traffic.

DDoS and Proxy Infrastructure

Attackers often route DDoS traffic through proxy servers, compromised residential IPs, and datacenter infrastructure. Botnets may include devices whose owners are unaware their machines are compromised. Some DDoS-for-hire services (booters/stressers) use backconnect proxy infrastructure to amplify and distribute attack traffic.

DDoS Mitigation and AntiProxies

Defending against DDoS requires dedicated infrastructure: traffic scrubbing centers, CDN-based absorption, and intelligent rate limiting. AntiProxies contributes by providing real-time IP intelligence that helps distinguish between legitimate traffic and connections from known botnet infrastructure, proxy networks, and datacenter IPs. This intelligence can be used to prioritize legitimate traffic during an attack or to harden your infrastructure proactively by identifying high-risk IP ranges before an attack begins. For practical guidance on defending your endpoints, read our guide on protecting your API from automated abuse.