How to Stop WordPress DDoS Attacks on your Website?


Most certainly, you have heard about WordPress DDoS attacks if you’ve been in online business for some time. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is not a new concept. The term DDoS was known from the early 90s and was used to bring out of order web services by sending hundreds of requests to the attacker's server.

A DDoS attack is incredibly easy to carry out and affects millions of websites all over the world each year, with the number of attacks growing. Fortunately, just like other cybersecurity risks, you may take steps to reduce the opportunities of WordPress DDoS attacks on your website. Implement a security program will help to stop your online business and prevent cybercriminals from crippling it.

In this guide, we will discuss what the WordPress DDoS attacks are? And how they work? Let’s begin!

What are DDoS Attacks?

DDoS stands for distributed denial service but is usually referred to as a simple denial service. A DDoS attack is a website that is overwhelmed with requests over a short period to overload the site and causes it to crash. The' distributed' aspect means that such attacks come simultaneously from several locations, as compared to a DDoS that comes from only one place.

You will receive thousands of requests from various sources over minutes if your site experiences a DDoS attack. Such requests aren't the result of getting a spike in traffic unexpectedly from a website: they are automated and can come from a small range of sources, based on the scale of the attack.

How do WordPress DDoS Attacks work?

A target server or network gets requests from compromised devices during WordPress DDoS attacks. The requests are regular that a server maxes out the bandwidth capacity of a network or resources. This reduces server response and is made useless in severe cases.

Few Methods to Secure your WordPress site against DDoS Attacks:

DDoS attacks maybe dangerous, but there are several ways you can set up security for WordPress DDoS attacks:

1. Using a content delivery network (CDN)

CDNs are services that cache copies on their data centers of your website. The world's most popular CDNs provide data centers, and they serve as a middleman between you and the visitors to your site. 

If possible, your CDN will serve from its servers a cached copy of your website, which translates less burden on yours. Moreover, since they are designed with efficiency in mind, CDNs can also enable you to decrease overall loading times. By preventing the resulting traffic from flooding your website, CDNs serve as a sort of firewall to DDoS attacks. They can identify abnormal trends in traffic and can act to minimize the attack if things scale too quickly.

Many CDNs, such as Cloudflare, also serve as a reverse proxy that will further secure your WordPress site from WordPress DDoS attacks.

2. Sign up for a DDoS-protection service

Most CDNs provide extra DDoS security because other services are designed to avoid DDoS attacks. For instance, Google provides a service called Project Shield, which is made accessible via invitation. 

When it comes to costs, other DDoS security providers tend to be on the high-end. It is the kind of service which is generally paid for only by businesses. AWS provides a Shield service for DDoS security to give you an idea and charges $3,000 a month for its Advanced tier.

3. Switch to a new hosting provider

Most web hosts are raving about the results. It's evident, though, that not all of them are performance-wise at the same stage. Many web hosting servers, even under a modest burden, are slowing down dramatically, which makes those providers horrible choices if you experience WordPress DDoS attacks.

The good thing is that the most respected web hosting companies are introducing some form of server-level security against traffic floods. For example, SiteGround uses a hardware firewall and searches for unusual connection numbers. Another example is the WP Engine that combines from the box with Cloudflare to provide DDoS security for all of its plans. These are two of our favorite web hosts for WordPress, but they are far from being the only choices that provide security for DDoS.

4. Set up a Firewall

The concept of firewalls is possibly familiar to you already. A firewall is that it is a piece of software that uses its own set of pre-programmed rules to secure your device from unauthorized access. You can customize your firewall to help you to restrict the number of users who are likely to be bots accessing your website over a specified period and filter out users. When you set the amount to reasonable, this can be sufficient to prevent most WordPress DDoS attacks without affecting the user experience. One way to do this is by plug-ins in WordPress. For instance, Wordfence has a function that you can use to restrict the number of users and automated crawlers that can access your website.

Conclusion

Even small websites may fall victim to DDoS attacks these days. Additionally, many groups use it as a form of blackmail against companies, which means setting up security for WordPress DDoS attacks can be a wise step.

If you need to prioritize WordPress site care and maintenance, but are confused whether you have the resources to do so, then you can consult expert WordPress Support Services. These WordPress Support services have extensive site care plans that will help you with everything from installing the appropriate plugins to carrying out comprehensive site security checks to strengthen your WordPress website security.