Glossary
DDoS Attack
Network SecurityA Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack floods a target with traffic from multiple sources (a botnet) to exhaust its resources and make it unavailable. Attacks can target different network layers:
- Layer 3/4: volumetric floods (UDP, SYN) that saturate bandwidth
- Layer 7: application-layer attacks (HTTP floods) that exhaust server resources
AWS DDoS Protection
- AWS Shield Standard: free, automatic L3/L4 protection for all AWS resources
- AWS Shield Advanced:$3,000/month; dedicated DDoS response team, cost protection, advanced detection
- CloudFront: absorbs traffic at edge locations worldwide
- AWS WAF: rate limiting and bot protection at L7
- Route 53: DNS-level DDoS protection with health checks and failover
Related AWS Services
Related Content
Related Terms
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
A firewall that filters HTTP/HTTPS traffic to web applications, blocking common attacks like SQL injection, XSS, and bot traffic using customizable rules.
Defense in Depth
A security strategy using multiple layers of controls (network, identity, data, application) so that if one layer fails, others still protect the environment.
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