The Question Nobody Dares to Ask
There's a taboo in the business world that few discuss openly, but many think about: what if a competitor is behind DDoS attacks? It's a question IT managers whisper to executives, or what entrepreneurs ponder privately after a downtime incident. "Could it be that..." they begin, but then quickly add: "but I'm probably being paranoid."
Except it's not paranoia. Cloudflare's 2025 survey shows this in concrete numbers. When they asked companies that suffered DDoS attacks if they knew who was behind them, most answered no. This isn't surprising, since attacks are attractive precisely because they're difficult to trace. But among those who knew or strongly suspected: 39 percent identified a competitor.
This is the largest group. Not state-sponsored hackers, not ransomware criminals, not disgruntled former employees. Competitors. Businesses operating in the same industry, competing for the same customers, who found a way to gain an advantage illegally, but almost unprovably.
The Anatomy of the Perfect Crime
In traditional business competition, if you want to harm a competitor, you have limited options. Defamation? Illegal and easier to trace. Physical sabotage? Also illegal and obvious. Aggressive pricing? Legal, but costly and requires a long-term strategy that's painful for you too.
A DDoS attack, however, is an entirely different category. A botnet can be rented for a few thousand dollars, a few clicks on a web interface, and the attack launches. The attacker remains anonymous, it's nearly impossible to trace, and even if there's suspicion, proving it is almost impossible. The cost is minimal, the risk is low, and the potential gain is enormous.
And perhaps most frightening: this is becoming increasingly accessible. You no longer need hacker expertise. DDoS-as-a-Service platforms exist where you literally fill out a form, choose your target website, attack type, duration, pay in cryptocurrency, and the attack launches automatically. Digital sabotage has been democratized.
Gaming's Open Secret
Cloudflare's report specifically highlighted the gaming sector as one where competitor attacks are particularly common. This is understandable: gamer loyalty is extremely low. If a server is slow, laggy, or even just unavailable once or twice, they simply switch. No lengthy consideration, no emotional attachment. Does it work? I stay. Doesn't work? I go elsewhere.
In Q1 2025, there was an instructive case: an American hosting provider was attacked, operating game servers for Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and similar popular games. The attack sent 1.5 billion packets per second, in multiple waves, over 18 days. The players didn't understand the technical details; they only saw that the server was slow or unavailable. They simply moved to another server.
This mechanism is nearly perfect from the attacker's perspective: a short series of attacks that damages the competitor's reputation and takes over their players. Later, when the target finally implements some protection, it may be too late. The community has scattered, the momentum is lost.
E-commerce and the Black Friday War
If competitor attacks in the gaming world are already open secrets, they're still more taboo in e-commerce but increasingly common. The mechanism here is equally simple: when traffic is highest and potential revenue is greatest, a well-timed 20-30 minute attack can cause serious damage.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas season. These are all periods when online stores generate a significant portion of their annual revenue. These are precisely the moments when competitors can attack most effectively. An afternoon outage means customers go shopping elsewhere. If that elsewhere happens to be the attacker, then the investment for example a few thousand dollars for a botnet rental pays for itself many times over.
Statistics show that in 39 percent of attacks, a competitor could have been behind it. But that's only among those who knew or suspected. How many attacks are there where the victim simply attributes it to a "technical problem"? How many don't even think it could be intentional? The reality is probably far worse than the numbers show.
The Timing That's Too Perfect
There's a pattern that often reveals competitor attacks: timing. When a website always experiences "technical problems" precisely when a major campaign launches, when a new product launches, when seasonal peaks are expected that's already suspicious.
One e-commerce company suffered similar "problems" on three consecutive Black Fridays. Always in the morning, precisely when traffic begins. Always lasting the same duration, approximately 30-40 minutes. And always the same type of overload. The first year they thought simply too many shoppers came. The second year it was suspicious. The third year they implemented Cloudflare protection and the "problems" immediately ceased.
Of course, they couldn't prove who was behind it. But when protection became active, it was visible on the dashboard: yes, attacks were coming. Many. But they no longer reached the website. The attacker, whoever it was, likely gave up quickly when they saw their investment was wasted.
Gambling and the Stakes Are Real Money
In the gambling industry, competitor attacks are even one dimension more serious. Here it's not just about customers moving to another site. Here there's real money in the system, and if the service goes down, it immediately has legal consequences.
A sports betting site that goes down precisely before or during an important match doesn't just risk bettors going to another site. It also risks that those who already placed money and couldn't bet will take legal action. This is a double blow: you lose revenue and face legal problems.
And since competitor attacks are common in the gaming and gambling industries, many have simply built it into their business model: either you attack or you get attacked. This doesn't make it more ethical or legal, but it explains why it's so widespread.
How Do You Defend?
The reality is that proving who's behind a DDoS attack is nearly impossible. Even if you have strong suspicions, legal action is extremely difficult. Botnets are rented anonymously, traffic comes from hundreds or thousands of different sources, and the attacker never comes into direct contact with the victim.
Therefore, the solution isn't proof or retaliation, but defense. Cloudflare's automatic protection works so well against competitor attacks precisely because no human intervention is required. The system identifies malicious traffic and blocks it at the first requests. Legitimate customers receive an uninterrupted experience, and the attacker sees their investment wasted.
There's also a psychological factor: when an attacker sees the target is protected and their attacks aren't achieving their goal, they eventually give up. Why keep spending money on something that doesn't work? It's easier to find another, unprotected target. Protection is therefore not only technical but also a strong deterrent.
The Unprovable Truth
Competitor DDoS attacks exist. This is no longer a question. 39 percent among those who knew who attacked them. But how many are there who don't know? How many attribute to simple technical failure what is actually intentional sabotage?
In Hungarian business culture, this is particularly difficult to discuss. It's not proper to accuse, it's not proper to be suspicious. "Respectable businesses don't do such things"—many say. But statistics show otherwise. And as the business world becomes increasingly digitalized, as online presence matters more and more, this type of sabotage becomes increasingly attractive and increasingly simple.
The question isn't whether you're paranoid if you suspect a competitor might attack. The question is whether you've prepared for this possibility. Because attacks are coming, regardless of whether you believe in them or not. And as the 2025 numbers show, increasingly frequently, increasingly destructively.
Suspect a competitor is attacking? Don't leave it at that! With Gloster Cloud's Cloudflare solutions, you get automatic protection before the attack even reaches your website.
