A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a type of cyber attack that aims to overwhelm a website or server with traffic, rendering it unresponsive or unavailable to its intended users. The attacker achieves this by using a network of computers, often compromised without their owners’ knowledge, to flood the target with traffic or requests. DDoS attacks are a growing threat, and it’s essential to have measures in place to prevent them. One effective way to defend against DDoS attacks is by using Nginx as a web server and applying various techniques to mitigate the risk.
Nginx is a high-performance web server that can handle large amounts of traffic, making it an ideal solution for hosting high-traffic websites. Nginx’s design enables it to handle connection requests more efficiently than some other web servers, making it less likely to be overwhelmed by traffic spikes. Here are some techniques that you can use to prevent a DDoS attack with Nginx:
1. Limit requests
DDoS attacks rely on overwhelming the server with requests or traffic, so limiting the number of connections can help prevent an attack. Use the ‘limit_conn’ and ‘limit_req’ modules in Nginx to control the number of connections and requests from a single IP address.
2. Whitelist IP addresses
Allowing only trusted IP addresses to access your site can be an effective way to prevent a DDoS attack. Use the ‘allow’ and ‘deny’ directives in Nginx configuration files to create a whitelist of IP addresses that can access your site.
3. Use load balancing
By having multiple servers, you can distribute the load across them, making it harder for a DDoS attack to overwhelm any one server. Nginx offers load balancing functionality, and you can use it to distribute traffic across multiple servers.
4. Implement rate limiting
Implementing rate limiting can help limit the number of requests from a single IP address or a group of IP addresses, making it harder for a DDoS attack to be successful. Nginx has a ‘ngx_http_limit_req’ module that can be used to implement rate limiting.
5. Use caching
When a user accesses a website or web application, the server has to process the request, generate the response and send it back to the user. Caching can reduce the load on the server by storing frequently requested resources and serving them directly from the cache. Nginx has a built-in caching mechanism that can be used to cache frequently requested resources, reducing the load on the server.
In conclusion, DDoS attacks are a real threat that can cause significant damage to a website or server. Using Nginx as a web server and implementing the techniques mentioned in this article can help prevent a DDoS attack. While no method can guarantee 100% protection against DDoS attacks, these techniques can significantly reduce the risk and make it harder for attackers to succeed. It’s always important to stay updated on emerging threats and take measures to protect your website and server.
Resource: Lynch, M. (2023). How to Prevent a DDoS Attack with Nginx. [online] The Tech Edvocate. Available at: https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-to-prevent-a-ddos-attack-with-nginx/ [Accessed 23 May 2023].
MixedMug
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to