DDoS Attacks on NGOs: When Digital Infrastructure Becomes a Vulnerability

A real-world example: the website of an internationally active NGO was recently crippled by a massive DDoS attack. Over 30 million requests per second – sustained over several days. The systems were overwhelmed, the website was offline for days, and essential services were inaccessible. Donations ceased. Public perception was damaged.

Such attacks are no longer exceptions. They deliberately target organizations with societal relevance – exposing how vulnerable many digital ecosystems really are.

Digital Sovereignty Requires Resilience

NGOs are now under constant digital observation: visible, attackable, relevant. They often operate with tight budgets, limited IT resources, and complex, organically grown system landscapes. At the same time, funders, supporters, and target groups expect stable, secure, and accessible digital services.

Digital sovereignty in this context means being able to understand, shape, and secure one’s own infrastructure – independently, robustly, and adaptively. It’s about more than just data protection or tools. It’s about the ability to remain operational, even in times of crisis.

What Happens During a DDoS Attack?

In a DDoS attack (“Distributed Denial of Service”), systems of a website or platform are flooded with automated requests – often simultaneously from thousands or millions of sources.  In the first quarter of 2025, Cloudflare blocked 20.5 million DDoS attacks (view report). The goal isn’t to steal data. The goal is to block digital operability.

A metaphor: imagine millions of people suddenly lining up at a ticket booth, all pressing the button at once. The booth collapses under the load – and no one gets through.

For NGOs, this means: forms no longer work. Donations cannot be made. Assistance is unreachable.

But it’s about more than just technical outages.

When an NGO’s website is unavailable, key messages, positioning, and background information become inaccessible. Press inquiries go unanswered because core content cannot be found. People seeking more information as part of a social media campaign hit an error page. Someone opening up to a cause finds no voice offering guidance.

The organization loses its digital ability to act in that moment, and with it, its voice in the public discourse.

Not because it has nothing to say. But because it’s technically unreachable.

Why NGOs Are Especially Vulnerable

• High visibility: NGOs represent societal values – making them targets for ideologically or politically motivated actors.

• Dependence on digital contact points: Many services are now accessible only online.

• Limited IT resources: Security architecture is rarely part of long-term planning.

• Evolved system landscapes: Historically developed infrastructures with many dependencies present potential attack surfaces.

All of this makes NGOs prime targets for digital attacks – especially when no clearly structured security strategy is in place.

What Defines Robust Digital Ecosystems

Resilience starts with architecture – not with selecting individual tools. Anyone who takes digital sovereignty seriously incorporates security from the beginning:

• Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) provide distributed load balancing and fault tolerance.
• Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) filter malicious requests before they reach the infrastructure.
• Real-time DDoS detection blocks attacks automatically using adaptive behavior patterns. 
• Load balancing & redundancy prevent single points of failure.
• Clearly defined emergency processes and responsibilities ensure that everyone knows what to do.
• Modular system structures allow targeted protective measures without overhauling everything.

Digital security is not a state – it’s a process, and part of organizational maturity.

Security Architecture Is Organizational Development

IT security can’t simply be “retrofitted.” It must become part of strategic development – just like governance, accessibility, or communications.

• Security is a structural issue: Who has which rights, how systems communicate, how updates are handled.
• Security is a cultural issue: Are risks addressed? Are responsibilities clear? Is regular testing performed?
• Security is an attitudinal issue: Does the organization see security as a technical concern – or as part of its ability to act?

Only those who view security as part of the overall architecture can build long-term digital resilience.

Incident Playbook

Before

• Choose a CDN/WAF with strong DDoS protection, EU compliance, and 24/7 support.
• Set rate limits on donation, login, and API endpoints.
• Build static fallback pages (donate, contact) that are cacheable and hosted separately.
• Define “attack mode” profiles with stricter rules and fewer scripts.
• Create a runbook with a clear RACI (who does what) and test it quarterly.

During

• Activate “attack mode”: tighten WAF, enable bot challenges, and serve static fallbacks.
• Pause heavy scripts and third-party content.
• Coordinate with providers to keep payments and communications running.
• Post clear updates on status page and social.
• Track metrics (latency, errors, WAF blocks), and log all actions and decisions.

After

• Collect logs, review root cause, and refine rules and limits.
• Update the runbook, status page, and comms templates.
• Add synthetic monitoring for key flows.
• Debrief with the team and plan next actions based on what was learned.

Our Contribution as a Technology Partner

As a partner for digital ecosystems, we work with NGOs to develop systems that are not only functional and user-centered – but also sovereign and resilient.

• We analyze existing infrastructures for vulnerabilities and risks.
• We develop digital architectures that are scalable, failure-tolerant, and adaptable.
• We view security not as an add-on, but as part of digital future-readiness.

This is not about fearmongering – it’s about the ability to remain active, even in a critical moment.

How resilient is your digital infrastructure?

We support NGOs in strengthening their digital sovereignty – structurally, technically, and strategically. From analyzing existing systems to developing concrete protective measures.

Learn more about our IT security consulting for organizations

FAQ

1. Are DDoS attacks the same as data breaches?
   No. DDoS targets availability, making services unreachable, rather than stealing data. However, attackers sometimes use DDoS as a distraction. Maintain monitoring for both availability and security signals.
2. What is the minimum protection stack an NGO should deploy?
   At minimum: a CDN in front of all public endpoints, a WAF with tunable rules, adaptive rate limiting, real‑time DDoS mitigation, static fallback pages for donate/contact, centralized logging, synthetic monitoring, and a tested incident runbook with clear roles.
3. Will DDoS mitigation hurt donation conversions or accessibility?
   Properly tuned, it shouldn’t. Apply challenges selectively (e.g., to high‑risk geos/ASNs), keep donation pages lightweight and cacheable, and allowlist payment gateways. Test the full donation flow quarterly—including during “attack mode.”
4. How long do DDoS attacks last—and what should we plan for?
   Anything from minutes to days, often in waves as attackers adapt. Plan for sustained mitigation: always‑on protection, provider burst capacity, and the ability to serve static fallbacks so essential actions remain possible even under load.
5. Do we need 24/7 on‑call coverage?
   If donations, counseling, or crisis information are mission‑critical, yes—ensure a lightweight on‑call rotation with clear escalation to your provider’s SOC. If 24/7 isn’t feasible, define thresholds that auto‑notify both your team and the provider.
6. Which metrics signal a DDoS in progress?
   Watch for sudden RPS spikes, rising 5xx errors, degraded p95 latency, unusual geo/ASN distributions, surging WAF block rates, and high origin CPU. Synthetic journey failures (e.g., donate flow) are an early, user‑centric alarm.
7. We use a common CMS and shared hosting—are we more vulnerable?
   The CMS isn’t the issue; upstream capacity and exposure are. Put a robust CDN/WAF in front, hide the origin IP, move critical pages to cache‑friendly designs, and choose hosting that supports provider‑grade DDoS mitigation.