How Hackers Could Shut Down Your Website

Small business owners need to be aware of the threat from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, says John Mariotti. Hackers use hundreds or thousands of computers to all try to access your site at the same time, causing the server to crash. How can you protect yourself?

"Remember a few decades ago when there was a plan for everyone to flush their toilets at the same time, and drain the water supply, just briefly. It didn’t work so well, due to the problems of timing and communications, but the idea was a valid one.

Do anything in huge orders of magnitude beyond what the systems were designed for and they crash. McDonald’s noontime rush for burgers would be devastated by the arrival of six busloads of tourists all at once."