How is DDoS protection provided for static sites?

27 Haz 17:21

Static site DDoS protection might seem like a simple topic at first glance, but there are plenty of nuances when dealing with traffic spikes. First, the advantage of serving static content is fast response times—but if you just route your traffic through Cloudflare Free and call it a day, you're not fully protected. Cloudflare's basic DDoS protection can block sudden SYN flood attacks, but it falls short against botnet-driven request floods. The key here is testing the limits of the free plan and fine-tuning WAF rules as needed. Similarly, platforms like Vercel or Netlify already use global CDNs, but their default protections aren’t tailored to your needs—attackers can easily probe their structure. Second, what you mean by "not degrading performance" changes depending on your approach. If you want sub-100ms response times even during traffic surges, you’ll need aggressive caching strategies. For example, maximizing edge cache lifetimes for static assets and implementing HTTP/2 optimizations like "stale-while-revalidate"—but the risk here is real users missing fresh content. To strike the right balance, analyze traffic stats to determine which assets update frequently and adjust caching policies accordingly. Remember: excessive caching can mimic DDoS protection by masking real attacks, blending fake traffic with legitimate requests. Finally, when talking about user experience, focus on the side effects of DDoS protection. Overly strict WAF rules can trap normal users in CAPTCHAs or trigger geo-blocks due to false IP bans. Enabling Cloudflare’s "Under Attack Mode" increases wait times for legitimate users, directly harming UX. The best approach is continuous monitoring to distinguish normal from abnormal traffic. Integrating automated attack detection tools (like Fail2Ban at the edge) provides more flexible protection. Instead of relying on a single tool, keeping the process under constant observation helps balance security and user experience.