Yesterday, betalist.com got DDoS'd. The attacker posed as a "security researcher" asking $5,000 in Bitcoin to "solve" the issue 😂

Today, a WIP member got his site attacked as well.

They might be targeting indie makers so make sure you're prepared.

Fortunately blocking the bot traffic is relatively straight forward.

Make sure you're using a firewall like Cloudflare, and don't expose your server IP address anywhere. (or else they can cirmcumvent Cloudflare)

When you get attacked, Cloudflare will automatically block some of the bots. But probably not all.

You'll want to enable "Under Attack" mode. And confgure your firewall rules to be a bit more aggressive.

If some bots still make it through, see if you get any unusual traffic from countries you normally don't see. Consider (temporarily) blocking all traffic from these countries.

(e.g. I saw lots of bot traffic coming from China, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.)

Whatever you do, don't pay the ransom (duh). That just tells them you're a good target for future attacks.

When you do get attacked, use it as a reason to educate others on how to protect themselves.