As of the beginning of 2022, there were approximately 1.83 billion websites in the world, and this number continues to grow. The e-commerce industry also continues to experience dynamic growth: according to Data Insight analysts, the e-commerce market grew by over 90% in terms of orders (reaching 1.6 billion) and by over 45% in monetary terms, reaching a volume of 3.9 trillion rubles in 2021.
However, such growth also leads to an increase in the number of cyberattacks, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Attackers use new algorithms and fraudulent schemes to target IT infrastructure.
DDoS attacks are one of the most common threats to the e-commerce industry. They are carried out by sending a huge number of requests to a resource that exceed its processing capacity, leading to a denial of service.
However, there are ways to protect against DDoS attacks. For example, complex passwords and network settings can be used to protect against hacking, as well as installing specialized software to detect and prevent DDoS attacks. In addition, you can turn to specialized companies that provide DDoS protection services. These companies use various methods, such as traffic blocking, data filtering, and others, to secure your website and server.
Attack goals in e-commerce
For e-commerce projects, having an accessible website for customers is critically important, as it directly affects the number of orders, revenue, loyalty, and audience size. A failure in the online store's operation can always lead to missed opportunities, lower search engine rankings, customer dissatisfaction, who were unable to place orders, as well as damage to reputation. DDoS attacks on e-commerce projects are often carried out by competitors who benefit from all the negative consequences for your business. Sometimes, attackers may offer to stop the attack for a financial reward - this is known as a ransom. Also, a DDoS attack may be just a diversionary maneuver to divert attention from more serious incidents, such as a leak of important data or infrastructure interference.
Types and Levels of DDoS Attacks
There are various types and levels of DDoS attacks that affect the operation of modern Internet using the OSI network infrastructure at the 7 layers of OSI/ISO protocols.
At the most primitive level of physical data transmission, protocols such as Ethernet, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and IRDA are used. At the channel level through switches and hubs, communication between networks occurs at the data link layer. At the network level, the path for data transmission is determined using the IP protocol, and at the transport level, the reliability of data transmission is ensured through UDP and TCP protocols. The session layer provides stable device communication during the session using SMPP and PAP protocols, while the presentation layer converts data into the required format based on protocols and encodings such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, MPEG, ASCII, and others. At the application level of the infrastructure, there is communication between applications and the network.
Each of these layers can be vulnerable to a DDoS attack, and the corresponding layer that was attacked is assigned a number.
There are various types of DDoS attacks that are most commonly used in the modern world. They can be classified as low-level and high-level, depending on the network layer where they occur.
Low-level attacks include network and transport layer attacks. Network attacks can take the form of channel stuffing, for example, using CMP flooding, where ICMP messages overload the border router and/or firewall. Transport layer attacks can include SYN flooding or Smurf attack, where ICMP requests with modified addresses can disrupt functionality and intercept traffic.
High-level attacks, in turn, are aimed at the session and application layers. Session attacks can affect network equipment through vulnerabilities in embedded software, while application attacks are aimed at erasing memory or information from disk, resource leaks from the server, extracting and using data from databases, which can cause a total lack of resources for even basic operations on the equipment.
A large number of senders is required to carry out a DDoS attack, usually attackers use botnets - networks of infected computers, anonymously controlling the actions of each of them. The number of such infected computers directly affects the power of the attack.
Today, attackers use any devices that have access to the network and certain vulnerabilities, such as video surveillance systems and gadgets from the Internet of Things, which are becoming increasingly common. This means that the IoT, which was created to increase people's comfort and quality of life, has become a weapon in the hands of cybercriminals.
How to protect against DDoS attacks
DDoS attacks are constantly evolving, and self-defense measures cannot guarantee the security of your projects. However, there are several measures that you can take on your own:- If the availability of your website or application is not critical, you can take no action - DDoS attacks usually stop on their own within 1-2 days, as it is an expensive tool for competitive struggle and attacks.
- Increase the bandwidth of your internet channel up to 1Gbps - such a channel can eliminate small and the most massive DDoS attacks, which can stop a relatively small website running on web hosting or VPS/VDS.
- Keep your software up to date and timely update it to eliminate vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers, especially in website management systems.
It is important to note that all these measures require certain knowledge and constant attention to the problem - if you stop monitoring them, attackers will find a way in. If you do not want to spend your time and resources on protecting against DDoS, it is worth paying attention to professional protection systems that significantly reduce the risks of downtime for your web resources.
DDoS protection scenarios from the provider
Data storage providers have sufficient resources and expertise to deal with DDoS attacks and other security threats. Typically, providers can use three main DDoS protection scenarios:
- Blocking a specific IP address targeted by the attack until professional protection is installed or until the attack stops. In this case, other IP addresses can continue to operate and process client requests without disrupting the entire infrastructure.
- Blocking traffic on a specific port on a specific IP address. In this case, other IP addresses continue to function normally.
- Using specialized software and hardware solutions to filter incoming traffic, which can recognize and block anomalous activity, preventing DDoS attacks.
Professional DDoS protection
The team of professionals at Riverit specializes in providing technical support for e-commerce projects and we understand the importance of protecting against DDoS attacks. Therefore, we offer our clients professional DDoS protection algorithms that operate on advanced software in high-performance computing clusters.
We continuously update our algorithms, increase our channel bandwidth, and add computing resources to our traffic processing clusters to provide our clients with reliable protection against all types of DDoS attacks. We are also capable of detecting and blocking previously unknown anomalous network activities.
By choosing Riverit, you guarantee stable operation and continuous accessibility for your audience, helping to strengthen your reputation, increase profits, and retain loyal customers.
Professional protection against DDoS attacks
At Riverit, our team of professionals specializes in technical support for e-commerce projects, so we understand the importance of protecting against DDoS attacks. That's why we provide our clients with professional DDoS protection algorithms that operate on advanced software in high-performance computing clusters.
We constantly update our algorithms, increase channel bandwidth, and add computing resources to our traffic processing clusters to provide our clients with reliable protection against all types of DDoS attacks. We are also capable of detecting and blocking previously unknown anomalous network activity.
By choosing Riverit, you guarantee your projects stable operation and continuous accessibility for your audience. This helps to strengthen your reputation, increase profits, and build a loyal client base.