Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assaults have been considered one thing reserved for giant firms or authorities companies. Massive targets with huge servers and massive cash, proper? However not anymore. Small companies, content material creators, freelancers and even simply unusual people are more and more being focused.
And the statistics are fairly alarming. Cloudflare reported over 10.3 million DDoS assaults up till the third quarter of 2025. It’s a pointy enhance from the 21.3 million assaults in 2024. So why the rise? It’s as a result of launching these assaults have turn out to be a lot simpler and cheaper, with no elite hacking expertise required.
In actual fact, in some corners of the darkish internet, you would really lease a DDoS assault that prices the identical as a takeaway pizza. So is a Digital Non-public Community (VPN) the reply for safety? The place does its safety really start and finish? Let’s get into it.
What Are DDoS Assaults?
DDoS assaults occur when hundreds of gadgets, generally even hundreds of thousands, ship an enormous quantity of visitors to at least one goal concurrently. These gadgets are often made up of a community of hacked computer systems and telephones which are managed by the attacker.
It’s not like phishing makes an attempt the place the objective is to steal your information. The target is to overwhelm. Your web site or community turns into so flooded with faux visitors that actual customers can’t really entry it.
Because of this, web sites decelerate and also you lose out on gross sales and income – even your status is at stake in case your downtime takes too lengthy.
The place Do VPNs Come In?
VPNs are used primarily to maintain your on-line actions nameless. They do that by hiding your actual IP tackle as a result of they use a server in a special location, often a special nation to the place you really are.
To ensure that DDoS assaults to occur efficiently, your IP tackle is focused. Attackers have to know the place you’re so as to have the ability to ship the flood of visitors to that location. But when a VPN is masking your IP tackle, it makes it a lot more durable for them to search out you and disrupt what you are promoting.
How VPNs Defend Towards DDoS Assaults
Utilizing a VPN isn’t a foolproof solution to defend your self from DDoS assaults they usually often are only one layer of your safety efforts. However listed below are a number of the ways in which they might help safeguard you from these sorts of assaults.
They Cover Your IP Tackle
Concealing your IP tackle is the most important type of safety that VPNs can provide. Once you use one, hackers can’t see what your actual IP is and any visitors they attempt to ship goes straight to the VPN’s server, not yours.
This alone is sufficient to cease most assaults earlier than they even begin. If attackers can’t discover your actual tackle, it’s a shot at the hours of darkness. For freelancers working remotely or small companies managing their very own servers, it’s extremely helpful to be utilizing a VPN.
VPN Suppliers Filter Web Site visitors
The respected VPN suppliers on the market run huge distributed networks which are designed to handle enormous volumes of visitors. If a DDoS assault have been to hit considered one of their servers, it might be detected and eliminated whereas reliable visitors can be prioritised.
These sorts of assaults may knock a enterprise offline fully however they probably wouldn’t even register as an issue for the supplier as a result of they’re higher geared up to deal with it.
They Add A Layer Of Anonymity
Hackers are sometimes deterred by the anonymity which VPNs offer you on-line. It’s simpler for them to go after simple targets with recognized IPs and predictable community setups.
If they’ll’t establish that with you, they’re extra more likely to transfer onto another person.
Do VPNs Have Limitations?
VPNs are useful sure, however they aren’t actually invincible. They don’t defend servers that you just host publicly, whether or not it’s a public web site or cloud-hosted service. Your server’s IP is already recognized to the general public so even when you’ve got a VPN in your private machine, it might probably’t cease a DDoS assault on that server.
To stop this, you would want both devoted DDoS safety or use a firewall.
It’s additionally value noting that very massive assaults can nonetheless trigger disruptions. Generally your VPN server will decelerate or the connection will get disrupted quickly. That is why it’s value paying for a dependable VPN service as a result of free VPNs don’t have the required infrastructure to deal with assault visitors.
So are VPNs value it for DDoS safety? They’ll’t cease each assault that occurs, no software can do this alone simply but. However they’ll scale back your publicity to those assaults, making you a much less enticing goal.
