You built your VPS setup carefully. You chose the right hosting provider, configured your server, deployed your applications, and everything is running smoothly. Then one day, out of nowhere, your server becomes unreachable. Your website is down, your applications are unresponsive, and your users are getting error messages. You check your server metrics and discover that your bandwidth is completely maxed out and your server is drowning under a flood of incoming traffic that you never invited.

Congratulations, you have just experienced a DDoS attack.

It is one of the most frustrating and disruptive things that can happen to a server owner. And the worst part is that it can happen to anyone at any time, regardless of how big or small your operation is. Attackers do not always target large corporations. Small businesses, indie developers, gaming servers, and personal projects are hit just as often.