If your business relies on its online presence to operate, whether through e-commerce, client portals, or customer communication, a sudden website crash or network slowdown can feel catastrophic. Often, these disruptions aren’t accidental. One of the most common culprits is a DDoS attack, or Distributed Denial of Service attack.

But what exactly causes a DDoS attack? And why would anyone want to target you? According to Cloudflare, these attacks are up 358% year over year.

We have fended off many of these attacks recently and I thought this was a good topic to blog about. Let’s take a closer look at how these attacks happen, and what motivates the criminals behind them.

What Is a DDoS Attack?

At its core, a DDoS attack is an effort to make a website, online service, or network unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic. But it’s not just any traffic—it’s malicious, coordinated, and comes from a large number of sources all at once. The goal is to flood your system’s capacity, so legitimate users can’t get through. Imagine your company’s website as a hotel lobby. If hundreds of people suddenly rush in - not to check in, but just to stand around blocking every door, and no real guests can get to the front desk. That’s essentially what a DDoS attack does to your digital infrastructure. These attacks are often launched through a network of compromised computers and devices, known as a botnet. These bots, which can include everything from laptops to smart home devices, are hijacked by attackers and commanded remotely to send thousands (or millions) of requests to a single target.

Who’s Behind These Attacks—and Why?

To understand what causes a DDoS attack, it’s not enough to look at the technical side. You have to consider why someone would want to take your business offline in the first place. The motivations vary, and they range from the ideological to the criminal to the downright petty.

Some DDoS attacks are acts of protest, or digital activism. In the digital age, disrupting a company or government’s online presence can be a way for activist groups to make a political statement. Known as “hacktivism,” these attacks are often launched in response to controversial policies, corporate behaviour, or public scandals. For example, a government website may be taken offline during a time of civil unrest, or an oil company might be targeted by environmental activists looking to make their opposition known. The goal here isn’t necessarily to cause long-term damage - in this case it’s about visibility and making headlines.

In more cutthroat industries, unethical competitors may resort to DDoS attacks to create chaos at just the right moment. This is essentially corporate sabotage, or as I like to call it: ‘Cyber Terrorism’. If your organisation is about to launch a new product or run a major sales event, an attack that knocks your site offline - even for a few hours in the best of cases - can result in confusion and stress among your staff and audience, lost revenue, a damaged reputation, and certainly cause audience / customer frustration. This kind of sabotage is hard to trace and even harder to prove. But it happens, especially in sectors where online performance directly impacts market position.

One of the fastest-growing motivations behind DDoS attacks is money: extortion - ransom. Cybercriminals may launch an attack and then demand payment to stop it—or threaten a future attack unless a ransom is paid upfront. These are known as ransom DDoS (or RDoS) attacks. Victims are usually asked to pay in cryptocurrency, and the attackers often give a short deadline. For small to mid-sized businesses that don’t have advanced defences in place, the pressure to pay quickly can be intense. Of course, giving in doesn’t guarantee the problem will go away. While in the past, paying the ransom was the only way to quickly get rid of the problem - more recently it just invites further extortion.

Sometimes, a DDoS attack isn’t the main act—it’s a distraction that just masks a larger attack. While your IT team scrambles to deal with overwhelming traffic, attackers may use the opportunity to slip in unnoticed and steal data, plant malware, or breach internal systems. This kind of multi-layered attack requires coordination and planning, and it's often aimed at organisations with valuable customer data or financial information. In these cases, the DDoS is just the ‘smoke’ and what you should be really worried about is the fire behind it.

However, not all DDoS attacks are launched by sophisticated criminal networks. Sometimes, they’re carried out by bored teenagers or amateur hackers—often called “script kiddies”—who use pre-made software tools to see if they can take a site down. Their motivations range from curiosity to boredom to ego - wanting to show off to peers in online forums. While these attacks may be less targeted and less damaging in the long run, they can still disrupt your business, leave your team scrambling for answers and your audience quickly going elsewhere to find the services they want.

So why are some organisations more vulnerable? A DDoS attack is like a stress test for your digital infrastructure. If your systems aren’t built to handle large volumes of traffic - or if you don’t have protective measures in place - you’re more likely to be affected. Smaller businesses are often more vulnerable because they are easy targets. SMEs generally rely on basic ‘entry level’ or DIY infrastructure  that can’t handle sudden spikes in traffic, and also tend to lack traffic filtering tools like firewalls, CDNs, or DDoS mitigation services (Unless they are partnered with Joomstore or our network partners haha). Probably the most crucial issue is when they haven’t planned for or rehearsed cyber incident responses - which makes them considerably more vulnerable.

Large enterprises certainly aren’t immune either. High-profile brands are frequent targets due to their visibility—and even brief downtime for these organisations can cost millions in lost revenue. This can be seen as a mark of prestige for hackers who are able to disrupt these powerful organisations like banks, hospitals or government departments. While for SMEs, a loss of that magnitude could well be catastrophic.

What’s the bottom line? DDoS attacks don’t happen in a vacuum. They’re caused by real people, driven by real motives; whether it’s activism, competition, greed, or mischief. While the attacks themselves are technical in nature, their causes are deeply human. As a business leader, understanding the why behind these attacks is just as important as knowing how they happen. By staying informed and proactive, you can work with your technology partners to build a stronger, more resilient tech stack for your organisation - one that’s prepared for the unexpected.

Because in a world where disruption can come from anywhere - in multiples, preparation isn’t just protection - it’s just good leadership.

Ring Noah at 1300 JOOMLA or send us a message through our contact page to schedule a free initial cyber security consultation for your organisation, and sleep better tonight.

#cyber #security #websites #perth #Joomla #webdesign #webdevelopment