Smokescreen DDoS: What’s Really Happening Behind the Attack

In recent years, DDoS attacks have become more than just a way to knock a website offline for a few hours. More and more often, attackers use them as a distraction tactic—a smokescreen that hides much more serious crimes, such as data theft, system breaches, or financial fraud. In this article, we explain how these attacks work—and what they’re really meant to cover up.

Every DDoS attack starts with a sudden spike in traffic that overwhelms a web server or network infrastructure. While the IT team scrambles to respond—tracing malicious traffic, blocking IP addresses, contacting their DDoS protection provider—attackers often launch a second, hidden attack simultaneously.

This tactic is particularly effective in organizations with limited security staff, as the entire team is forced to concentrate on managing the DDoS attack. While attention is diverted, attackers can carry out additional, often more damaging, activities without detection.

What Hackers Are Really After

The goal of attackers using DDoS as a smokescreen is usually simple: maximize gains while minimizing the chance of being detected. Here are some of the most common types of cybercrimes that happen behind the scenes:

• Accessing customer data—names, addresses, login credentials, payment info—all of which can be used for fraud, blackmail, resale, or phishing.
  
• Installing backdoors or spyware—especially common in attacks on government or political organizations, where the real goal is access to sensitive data, not money.
  
• Financial manipulation—for example, deploying malware to infiltrate accounting systems and forge payment orders.
  
• Breaking into corporate accounts and cloud services—to gain access to internal documents, email conversations, and credentials for other systems.
  
• Clearing the way for phishing—by knocking a site offline, attackers can redirect users to fake login pages or password reset forms.
  

Sometimes, DDoS attacks are carried out purely to damage a company’s reputation. Even a short outage can impact customer trust, investor confidence, and partnerships.

Read also: Why DDoS Attacks Happen (Reasons and Psychology Behind DDoS)

Real DDoS Smokescreen Examples

The non-profit Internet Archive was hit by a series of DDoS attacks. While defenders focused on mitigating the assault, attackers breached the system and stole data on more than 31 million users. According to SOCRadar analysts, the DDoS was just a distraction to help hackers reach their real target.

In a similar case a decade earlier, attackers used a DDoS attack to divert the attention of Code Spaces’ security team. While they were responding, the hackers gained access to the company’s AWS management console and deleted core data, including backups and configurations. It was the end of the business—the company couldn’t recover from the losses or the damage to its reputation. A Neustar expert who analyzed the incident wrote: “A DDoS attack and subsequent data breach that led to the shuttering of source code hosting firm Code Spaces offers an eye-opening reminder: Beware of DDoS attacks used as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from devastating hacking.”

The Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong was hit with a 500 Gbps DDoS attack—the largest at the time. Forbes reported that Chinese authorities may have been behind the attack, which temporarily disabled the group’s websites. During the blackout, hackers collected personal data of staff and volunteers, later used in phishing campaigns and, reportedly, political pressure.

Uncovering Attacks Behind DDoS

There’s no magic button, but there are effective strategies to protect your business from multi-layered cyberattacks.

One of the most effective approaches is using anti-DDoS protection in combination with a Web Application Firewall (WAF). This integrated solution helps block DDoS attacks while maintaining visibility over other application-layer threats.

Read also: Signs of a DDoS Attack

It’s also important to educate your team on cybersecurity best practices. Employees should understand how to respond during a DDoS attack, recognize unusual system behavior or phishing attempts, and know whom to contact when something goes wrong. While training alone won’t prevent attacks, it plays a key role in reducing risks and limiting damage.