How to stop DDoS attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks work by flooding a target — a network, application or infrastructure component — with more traffic than it can handle. If that sounds simple, it’s because it is. In fact, a DDoS has in some cases been a child’s play.  Last year in Harris County, Texas, a high school student orchestrated a DDoS attack in his school using only his school-issued Chromebook. It caused huge state-wide disruption, affecting more than 24,000 students and causing thousands of them to have to restart or retake portions of their state exams.

How can it be that easy? The issue with these less-sophisticated DDoS attacks is that they are cheap and easy to execute. Anyone can pay just a few dollars to a Dark Web domain offering DDoS-as-a-Service, and that’s all it takes. The ease in which these attacks can be launched means that even the smallest organizations can be targeted. Organizations should understand they no longer need to be fortune 500 company to become a DDoS target.

According to Radware, these cybercriminals offer services that “ ..enables individuals with minimal technical knowledge to launch disruptive attacks against targets over the internet. By paying a fee, often through anonymous channels like cryptocurrencies, anyone can temporarily overwhelm a website, network, or online service using attack infrastructure maintained by service operators.”

Law enforcement actions have sometimes caught major DDoS-for-hire providers, but the market has proven resilient. Cybercriminals simply rebrand, move to new domains, and adopt evasive hosting techniques, keeping the services alive despite takedowns. Today, DDoS-for-hire stays a persistent threat, sustained by a mix of amateur users, cybercriminals, and political actors, according to Radware.

The ubiquitous nature of DDoS attacks

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are designed to flood connectivity to a network so that the intended users cannot access their resources. They are started with the goal of halting network operations, potentially disrupting the flow of business.

Not surprisingly, a cyberattack that’s so easy to launch is a popular choice for cybercriminals. According to Sentinel One, network-layer DDoS attacks have grown by 168.2% year-over-year in early 2026, and that works out to an average of 44,000 DDoS attacks daily. Individual organizations have reported 139 attacks daily, and North America is one of the top targets, accounting for 63.1% of DDoS attacks worldwide.

There are seven major types of DDoS attacks:

Volumetric: This is the most basic form, which tries to overwhelm bandwidth using massive amounts of traffic, often via amplification techniques.

Protocol attacks: These attacks find and exploit weaknesses in network protocols.

Application-layer attacks: This form of attack uses an overwhelming amount of seemingly legitimate requests targeting specific applications to consume server resources.

Hybrid and multi-vector attacks: A combination of multiple techniques to evade defenses and increase impact.

Hit-and-run attacks: Uses short bursts of traffic to bypass detection and cause repeated disruptions, often lasting only a minute at a time.

Reflection and amplification attacks: Redirect and amplify small requests into large traffic volumes using third-party servers.

Ransom DDoS (RDDoS): These attacks threaten or launch attempts to extort payment from the target organization.

Today’s DDoS attacks often combine multiple methods, and criminals often shift tactics mid-attack.

How to protect your organization from DDoS attacks

Organizations should consider how their security partners can integrate detection, mitigation, traffic scrubbing, visibility and ongoing security operations. Can your current partner deliver these services?

One effective way to stop DDoS attacks is to choose a  subscription-based service designed to detect and mitigate these types of network attacks and help keep your network up and running. The best of these solutions applies cloud-based intelligence to quickly evaluate your network activity and identify threats attacking your infrastructure. Attack mitigation should begin automatically to help keep your resources available.

Your goals are our priorities. Let’s talk.

Spectrum Business partners with Radware to provide its advanced DDoS Protection service for enterprise customers. This collaboration integrates Radware's cloud-based intelligence and machine learning into the Spectrum network infrastructure to defend against volumetric and application-layer attacks.

The solution offers DDoS protection by:

Fast resolution: Quickly and automatically identify and remediate malicious traffic, helping to minimize the impact of attacks.

Adaptive evaluation: Comprehensive traffic evaluation that uses advanced analytics to identify anomalies showing an attack, specific to traffic flow at each customer location.

Scalable solution: Easily and seamlessly expand as your needs grow.

Continuous support: Always-available, single point of contact connects customers directly to our network and security experts for swift issue resolution.

By combining Radware’s leading technology with our engineering expertise and full suite of tailored connectivity solutions, Spectrum Business offers a secure networking experience that meets the evolving needs of modern businesses. Find out more about our cybersecurity offerings.