Imagine a box office selling first run tickets at midnight. A bunch of fans call at the same time, and everyone gets a busy signal. That is DDoS. These attacks occur when a large network of computers issues repeated requests against a target server, with the goal of making the target unavailable to normal users, or worst-case, breaking the normal functions completely.
A Zombie Botnet allows the owner of a network of compromised systems (known as Zombies as the negligent owners are unaware) to perform web requests at a rate so high as to break the target.
Public cloud networks allow hackers to usurp the normal use of an organization’s network to pivot and attack other systems. All they need is administrative access.
Protecting against these attacks relies on distributed functions; the same reason one diversifies a financial portfolio. Distributed functions for a small business may be as simple as having a secondary firewall and router on a separate IP that you can obtain from your wireless provider. Having a resource who monitors firewall and router activity means you can shut down traffic from a suspicious region using your firewall if, for instance, if the attacks are all coming from a single geo-location. Alternatively, or in tandem, you could use your secondary network interface to continue working while your IT and Security team works on blocking the offending party.
