DDoS protection strategies for VPS hosting

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks can cause serious downtime, lost revenue, and security concerns. If your Virtual Private Server (VPS) isn’t protected, your business is vulnerable to disruption, customer dissatisfaction, and even potential financial loss.

The good news? You can defend against DDoS attacks. With the right security strategies, network configurations, and hosting setup, you can keep your VPS secure and running smoothly.

This guide will walk you through what DDoS attacks are, their types, and how to protect your VPS against them!

What is a DDoS attack?

A DDoS attack is a deliberate attempt to overwhelm a server, network, or website by flooding it with an excessive amount of traffic. The goal isn’t to steal data or gain unauthorized access – it’s to disrupt services and take your site offline.

These attacks use multiple compromised devices, often forming what’s called a botnet – a network of infected computers, servers, or IoT devices controlled by an attacker. By sending a massive wave of fake requests to your VPS, a DDoS attack exhausts your server’s resources, making it impossible for real users to access your website.

Any website or online service running on a VPS is a potential target, but certain factors make some businesses more vulnerable than others. High-traffic websites (eCommerce stores, online marketplaces, and SaaS platforms) are more attractive to attackers since their downtime has a greater impact. Also, competitive industries like gaming, finance, and media websites are frequent targets because they rely on real-time interactions that can be easily disrupted.

Without the right security measures in place, your server can struggle to filter out bad traffic. That’s why you need a DDoS-protected VPS – a hosting solution with built-in defenses against these attacks. 

Not all VPS hosting includes DDoS protection by default, so it’s important to choose a provider  (like Liquid Web) that offers real-time monitoring, mitigation services, and scalable infrastructure to handle unexpected traffic spikes without affecting performance. Instead of relying solely on external security tools, the hosting provider integrates network-level filtering, automated mitigation systems, and traffic analysis to detect and block malicious traffic before it reaches your server.

Types of DDoS attacks

Not all DDoS attack types work the same way. Some focus on overwhelming your bandwidth, while others exploit weaknesses in server protocols or target specific applications but they all have one goal: taking your VPS offline.

Volumetric attacks

Volumetric attacks are the most common type of DDoS attack. They work by sending massive amounts of traffic to your server, consuming all available bandwidth and making it impossible for legitimate users to connect. These attacks don’t require sophisticated techniques – just brute force.

The most notable volumetric DDoS attacks are:

• UDP floods: Attackers send large numbers of UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets to random ports on your server. Your VPS has to process each one, eventually becoming overwhelmed.
• ICMP floods (ping floods): Attackers send an excessive number of ICMP (ping) requests, causing your server to waste resources by responding to each one.

Because volumetric attacks are sheer force-based, they are often mitigated using traffic filtering, rate limiting, and DDoS protection services that detect and block abnormal spikes in activity.

Protocol attacks

Protocol DDoS attacks target the way your server processes network connections. Instead of flooding your VPS with raw traffic, these attacks exploit vulnerabilities in network protocols, forcing your server to use up resources until it becomes unresponsive.

Protocol attacks can happen as:

• SYN floods: Attackers exploit the TCP handshake process by sending a flood of connection requests (SYN packets) but never completing them. Your server keeps waiting for responses, using up memory and resources until it crashes.
• Slowloris: This attack opens multiple connections to your server but sends data at an extremely slow rate, keeping those connections open indefinitely. It’s especially effective against Apache and Nginx servers.

This type of DDoS attacks can be more difficult to detect since they don’t necessarily generate huge traffic spikes. Fortunately, configuring firewall rules, rate limiting, and connection timeouts can be effective in mitigating them.

Application layer attacks

Application layer attacks are more sophisticated and target the software running on your VPS rather than just the network. These attacks mimic real user behavior, making them harder to distinguish from legitimate traffic – this includes:

• HTTP floods: Attackers send an overwhelming number of HTTP requests to your web server, overloading it and making it difficult for actual users to access your site.
• DNS query floods: Attackers overwhelm your domain’s DNS server with excessive requests, making it difficult for users to resolve your website’s address.

Since application layer DDoS attacks don’t always involve massive traffic volumes, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Web Application Firewalls (WAF), and rate limiting are key to mitigating them.

How to protect your VPS from DDoS attacks

Instead of reacting to an attack after it happens, the best approach is proactive protection – setting up defenses that stop malicious traffic before it ever reaches your VPS. Here’s how to do it:

Keep your VPS updated and maintain regular backups

Outdated software can leave vulnerabilities open for attackers to exploit. Keeping your operating system, control panel, and applications up to date ensures that security patches are in place to minimize potential weak points.

Regular backups are also critical. If an attack compromises your system, having recent, clean backups means you can quickly restore your VPS without extended downtime or data loss.

Configure firewall rules to filter malicious traffic

A firewall is your first line of defense against unwanted traffic. By properly configuring firewall rules, you can filter out suspicious connections before they reach your VPS:

• Use IP whitelisting and blacklisting to allow only trusted traffic.
• Limit incoming requests to prevent overwhelming your server with excessive traffic.
• Enable rate limiting to slow down bots attempting to flood your system.

Many VPS control panels allow you to manage firewall settings easily, but for more advanced protection, a WAF can help detect and block DDoS-related threats at the application level.

Use traffic filtering and load balancing

If your VPS experiences sudden traffic spikes, a traffic filtering solution can help distinguish between legitimate users and bots. Services like DDoS protection networks or reverse proxies can analyze traffic patterns and block suspicious activity in real-time.

Load balancing is another effective strategy. By distributing incoming requests across multiple servers, a load balancer prevents your VPS from getting overwhelmed, ensuring that no single server bears the full weight of an attack.

Consider a CDN (Cloudflare or similar services)

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can act as a buffer between your VPS and incoming traffic, absorbing malicious requests before they reach your server. Providers like Cloudflare offer built-in DDoS protection that detects and blocks unusual traffic patterns automatically.

A CDN also reduces the load on your VPS by caching content on multiple servers worldwide, ensuring faster load times and better performance for legitimate users, even during an attack.

Deploy intrusion detection and prevention systems

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) monitors network traffic for signs of malicious activity, alerting you if something unusual is detected. Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) go a step further by actively blocking suspicious traffic before it can do damage.

Many modern hosting environments come with built-in IDS/IPS solutions, but you can also integrate third-party tools like Snort or Suricata to enhance security.

Assess your hosting provider’s DDoS protection

Not all VPS hosting solutions offer the same level of security. Some providers include built-in DDoS protection, while others leave it entirely up to you. When choosing a VPS provider, look for features like:

• DDoS mitigation services that detect and filter out attack traffic.
• Scalable resources that can handle unexpected traffic surges.
• 24/7 monitoring and automated response systems to stop attacks in real time.

Securing your VPS against DDoS attacks is about layered protection – no single solution is enough on its own. By combining firewalls, traffic filtering, load balancing, CDNs, and the right hosting provider, you can keep your VPS secure and ensure your website stays online even in the face of an attack.

How DDoS attacks impact VPS hosting

Here’s what happens when your VPS isn’t properly protected:

Downtime and revenue loss

When a DDoS attack overwhelms your VPS, your website or application becomes slow or completely inaccessible. If your business relies on online transactions, even a short period of downtime can mean lost sales and frustrated customers.

For eCommerce stores, SaaS providers, and businesses that depend on 24/7 uptime, every minute offline can result in lost revenue. In industries with tight margins, the financial impact of an attack can be significant.

Customer trust and brand reputation

Users expect fast, reliable access to websites and services. If they visit your site and find it unresponsive, slow, or crashing, they’re unlikely to stick around. Worse, repeated downtime can damage your reputation, making customers think twice before returning.

A poorly handled DDoS attack can also raise security concerns among your users. Even if no data is stolen, customers may associate outages with hacking attempts, leading them to question whether their information is safe.

Increased server resource consumption

DDoS attacks force your VPS to work harder than it should, consuming CPU, RAM, and bandwidth at an unsustainable rate. This not only slows down performance but can also cause your server to crash, requiring a restart or intervention from your hosting provider.

In some cases, the surge in traffic can interfere with other websites on the same server, affecting performance across multiple sites if you’re on a shared or VPS environment with limited resources.

Higher bandwidth costs and hosting penalties

Most VPS hosting plans have bandwidth limits, and exceeding them due to a DDoS attack could result in unexpected overage charges. If your provider operates on a pay-as-you-go model, you might end up paying significantly more for traffic you didn’t even want.

Some hosting providers may also temporarily suspend your account if your VPS is causing strain on their network. This means that, in addition to dealing with the attack, you may have to wait for your provider to lift restrictions before your site is fully operational again.

Security risks and further exploits

While DDoS attacks don’t directly steal data, they can be a distraction for other types of cyberattacks. Attackers may use a DDoS attack to overwhelm security teams while launching more targeted exploits, such as brute force attempts, malware injections, or data breaches.

If your VPS isn’t properly secured, an attack could expose vulnerabilities in your network that hackers might exploit later. This is why DDoS protection should be part of a larger security strategy rather than an afterthought.

How Liquid Web’s VPS hosting protects against DDoS attacks

Not all VPS hosting is built to withstand DDoS attacks. Many providers offer basic security features but leave the responsibility of DDoS protection entirely on you. 

Thankfully, Liquid Web takes a different approach – integrating DDoS protection at the network level to ensure your VPS stays secure, stable, and online even under attack. Malicious traffic is automatically detected and mitigated, stopping attacks before they ever reach your server. This means you don’t have to worry about sudden downtime or unexpected bandwidth spikes caused by an attack.

What’s more, Liquid Web’s network is continuously monitored for unusual traffic patterns, and the automated mitigation system responds instantly when an attack is detected. Instead of waiting for an outage to happen, Liquid Web’s protection filters out harmful traffic in real-time, allowing legitimate visitors to access your site without disruption. And because a DDoS attack can happen at any time, and when it does, Liquid Web’s 24/7 support team is always available to assist with security concerns, performance issues, and attack mitigation.

If you’re serious about protecting your VPS, Liquid Web’s VPS hosting gives you that peace of mind so you can focus on running your business – not fighting off attacks. Learn more about Liquid Web’s DDoS-protected VPS hosting today and keep your business online, no matter what!