A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a cyber attack in which criminals take down your website, ecommerce store or online service by flooding it with massive amounts of fake traffic from thousands of infected computers. The goal is simple: to make your site inaccessible to real visitors. For an SME, this means loss of revenue, reputation damage and disrupted customer processes. In the United States, we increasingly see DDoS attacks on ecommerce stores during peak periods such as Black Friday or on businesses after a conflict with extortionists.
How does a DDoS attack work in practice?
In a DDoS attack, attackers use a botnet: a network of thousands of hacked computers, smartphones or IoT devices that simultaneously send requests to your server. For example, each machine requests a page or sends data. Individually, these requests are normal, but together they demand more capacity than your server can handle. Your hosting crashes, load times increase to minutes or your site becomes completely unreachable. Modern DDoS attacks reach volumes of hundreds of gigabits per second. Many attackers rent botnets for a few tens of dollars per hour, allowing even small criminals to cause major damage. The attack stops only when the attacker stops or when you activate protection.
Why DDoS attacks are more relevant now than ever
DDoS attacks have been around for decades, but have become more accessible and powerful in recent years. Criminals offer DDoS-as-a-service: you hire an attack as you purchase a service. At the same time, there are more vulnerable IoT devices online that are easily hijacked for botnets. For Dutch SMEs, the risk is real: research by the National Cyber Security Center shows that smaller organizations are also being targeted, often as extortion or sabotage by competitors. An hour of downtime can quickly cost an average ecommerce store thousands of euros in lost sales, plus customers who move on to alternatives.
What DDoS protection brings to your business
Good protection against DDoS attacks keeps your site accessible, even during an attack. Modern hosting with DDoS mitigation automatically filters out malicious traffic before it reaches your server. This is done via edge servers and intelligent traffic analysis. For ecommerce stores and companies with online customer processes, this is essential: you prevent loss of revenue, protect your brand reputation and guarantee continuity. With managed WordPress hosting from Monkey Vision , DDoS protection is included by default, so your site will keep running even under attack. In addition, a strong Content Security Policy helps mitigate other security risks. Investing in protection is cheaper than the damage from one successful attack.
