Understanding DDoS Attack Types
DDoS attacks fall into three categories: volumetric (overwhelming bandwidth), protocol (exploiting network layer weaknesses), and application-layer (targeting specific endpoints with legitimate-looking traffic).
Mitigation Layers
- CDN and Anycast: Services like Cloudflare and Akamai absorb volumetric traffic across a global network before it reaches your origin.
- Rate Limiting: Throttle requests per IP at the edge to limit application-layer exhaustion.
- Traffic Scrubbing Centers: Route traffic through specialist cleaning centers that filter malicious packets.
- Auto-Scaling: Deploy infrastructure that automatically scales during traffic spikes to absorb burst loads.