Brute Force DDOS
As well as hacking attacks on servers and infrastructures a common approach to block access by users to content is to perform a Distributed Denial of Service(DDoS) attack. This is a very effective tactic if the attacker has access to either their own botnet infractructure or the financial resources to pay for such an attack.
As DDoS attacks become more common the price of such attacks has dramatically plummeted with many individuals offering such attacks for as little as $10/day - depending on the target.
There are a number of mechanisms and tools available for DDoS mitigation depending on the type of hosting.
In this scenario, unless the provider offers DDoS mitigation services, it is best to seek the aid of an external group. Several groups provide free online services that offer complete DDoS protection for NGO, Journalist, Activist or Civil Society websites. The following roups provide completely free services.
Deflect.ca
CloudFlare
Project Shield
Dedicated/VPS Hosting
As above all websites can benefit from the special services of the above groups if they qualify for free protection. This is by far the simplest approach and places the work load with experienced professionals.
If, however, the user wishes to setup their own anti-DDoS system there are a number of open source tools that can help.
BotnetDBP
Open Source Deflect
Fail2ban
