Every year, the weeks around Black Friday see a measurable spike in DDoS attacks against e-commerce, logistics, and payment infrastructure. The attackers' logic is ruthless: the higher the legitimate traffic, the higher the cost of any disruption, and the more leverage an extortionist or competitor has.
Who Attacks Retailers on Black Friday?
- Extortionists: demand payment in exchange for not attacking during peak hours.
- Competitors: disreputable actors who want to redirect shoppers to their own sites.
- Hacktivists: brands with controversial supply chains or policies are targeted during high-visibility moments.
- Botnets-for-hire: anyone with $50 and a grudge can rent DDoS capacity.
The 4-Week Preparation Timeline
- 4 weeks out: confirm DDoS protection is active and traffic is routing through Akarguard.
- 2 weeks out: run a load test — know your baseline traffic profile so anomalies stand out.
- 1 week out: verify origin IP isn't exposed anywhere; check all subdomains.
- 3 days out: brief on-call team, ensure runbook is updated, test Akarguard dashboard access.
- Day of: set up real-time monitoring alert thresholds 2x above normal traffic.
Most critical step
The worst time to set up DDoS protection is during an attack. DNS propagation takes time. Configure Akarguard weeks before Black Friday, not the morning of.