What is DDoS attack?
Also called: Distributed denial of service
The short answer
A DDoS attack floods a website with traffic from many machines at once to overwhelm it and knock it offline.
DDoS attack, explained
CDNs and network providers absorb and filter attack traffic before it reaches the site.
Questions people ask about DDoS attack
What is DDoS attack?
A DDoS attack floods a website with traffic from many machines at once to overwhelm it and knock it offline.
Related terms
A CDN is a network of servers around the world that keeps copies of a site's files and serves each visitor from the location nearest to them.
Web application firewallA web application firewall filters incoming requests to a website and blocks known attack patterns before they reach the application.
CloudflareCloudflare is a global network that provides DNS, CDN, security (DDoS protection and a web application firewall) and edge hosting for websites.
Website securityWebsite security is protecting a site, its data and its visitors from attacks, through HTTPS, updated software, careful input handling, strong logins and backups.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.