Man-in-the-middle and DDoS

In short: In a man-in-the-middle attack someone secretly inserts themselves between two parties and reads or changes the communication. In DDoS many computers together overload a service.

In more detail: MITM happens, for example, in unsafe public Wi-Fi. Encryption with TLS (HTTPS) and verified certificates protect against it. DDoS (distributed denial of service) floods a server with requests from a network of hijacked devices (“botnet”) so real users cannot get through.

In Depth

• MITM protection: HTTPS, HSTS, heed certificate warnings, VPN in foreign networks.
• DDoS types: volumetric attacks (fill bandwidth), protocol attacks (for example SYN flood), application attacks (expensive requests).
• DDoS defence: CDN and protection services, rate limiting, caching, scaling.
• IoT devices: Poorly secured cameras and routers are often part of botnets.

See also: CDN (content delivery network), VPN