High-Volume DDoS Attacks Disrupt South African Hosting and Internet Infrastructure

For a business, that can mean slow-loading pages, lost sales, missed emails, and customers who assume your website is unreliable.

This is not just a global enterprise problem. Recent high-volume DDoS attacks affected several South African hosting and internet infrastructure providers, causing connectivity problems and intermittent service issues. Some reported attacks reached hundreds of gigabits per second, showing how quickly harmful traffic can disrupt websites and online services at scale.

How A DDoS attack works

A DDoS attack usually uses a botnet, a network of infected computers, routers, servers, or IoT devices controlled by attackers without the owners' knowledge. They send large volumes of requests to the same target simultaneously. The target then runs out of capacity.

This can affect websites, servers, DNS services, and networks.

Some DDoS attacks are easy to spot because they involve huge traffic spikes. Others are harder to detect because the requests can resemble normal visitor activity.

Common methods include volumetric attacks, which consume bandwidth; application-layer attacks, which target specific website features; and DNS attacks, which affect how visitors reach your domain.

Why DDoS attacks are such a risk

A DDoS attack does not need to steal data to cause damage. Downtime alone can hurt your business.

If your website is unavailable, customers may not know you are under attack. They may simply think your business is offline, unstable, or unsafe. For e-commerce sites, that can mean lost revenue. For service businesses, it can mean missed leads. For portals or booking systems, it can block access to services people rely on.

DDoS attacks can also affect services tied to your domain, including email, customer platforms, payment systems, and third-party tools. If your DNS is disrupted, visitors may not reach your site even if the website server itself is still working.

There is also the issue of collateral damage. You may not be the direct target, but if your hosting, DNS, or upstream infrastructure is affected, your website can still experience problems.

How to help prevent DDoS attacks

You cannot always stop attackers from trying, but you can reduce the impact with layered protection.

Start with DDoS-protected DNS. DNS connects your domain name to your website. If DNS fails, visitors cannot reach you. Protected DNS helps absorb and filter harmful traffic before it causes disruption.

Next, use Anycast DNS. This routes DNS requests to the nearest available server location rather than relying on a single point. It helps improve speed, reliability, and availability during traffic spikes.

You should also monitor unusual traffic patterns, keep your website software updated, use bot filtering where possible, and protect your domain from unauthorised changes with domain locks and two-factor authentication (2FA).

How Domains.co.za helps protect your website

Domains.co.za’s Domain Protection helps secure your domain and improve website availability from one place. It includes DDoS and botnet protection, DDoS Protected DNS, Anycast DNS across 62 locations, WHOIS Privacy, Domain Transfer Lock, 2FA on domain updates, and DNSSEC support.

Together, these features help protect your domain from downtime, harmful traffic, unauthorised transfers, privacy exposure, and DNS-related attacks.

Conclusion

DDoS attacks are designed to make your website unavailable. They can affect sales, trust, email communications, customer access, and your overall online presence.

Domains.co.za helps reduce that risk with domain security, Anycast DNS, botnet protection, WHOIS Privacy, transfer locking, 2FA, and DNSSEC support, all designed to keep your domain secure, accessible, and easier to manage.

Protect your domain and website from harmful traffic and downtime with Domains.co.za Domain Protection.