Picture this: You’re on a video call and everything is running smoothly. Then, suddenly, your connection falters. The screen freezes, voices distort and within moments, the call drops.

You check your internet and it seems normal. So what happened?

You could have been a victim of a short-lived distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, also known as a micro-burst. These brief but intense traffic floods are becoming increasingly popular among attackers. And they’re challenging traditional approaches to DDoS defense. 

To better understand the issue, let’s consider how DDoS attacks used to work. Historically, DDoS attacks were lengthy and overwhelming affairs. Attackers would bombard a network with massive volumes of traffic for hours or even days, aiming to exhaust network resources entirely. Defenders had time—often a lot of time­—to identify the threat, mobilize countermeasures and push back.

This was the era of the 1–10–60 rule: 1 minute to detect, 10 minutes to investigate and 60 minutes to remediate. The approach wasn’t ideal, but at least there was a structured response process. 

Today, DDoS attackers have evolved their methods. They opt for hit-and-run tactics rather than prolonged sieges. Think of it like someone quickly ringing your doorbell and running away—again and again. Each disruption is short-lived but highly effective at causing frustration.

Micro-DDoS attacks work in a similar way. They are brief surges of traffic that last just one to five minutes, overwhelm inline mitigation appliances and disappear before conventional defenses can respond.

You might wonder whether such short interruptions really cause significant harm. The answer is yes.

While a five-minute disturbance may seem minor, these bursts can still disrupt critical services. For example, a two-minute micro-attack that targets a VoIP or communications service such as Zoom or Teams can overload a firewall and cause calls to drop. This is frustrating for end users. To make matters worse, these attacks often end so quickly that many conventional DDoS defenses don’t even detect them, leaving businesses wondering why their services keep faltering. 

This is where the speed of response becomes critical. For these rapid, transient attacks, detection and mitigation need to happen fast—ideally within 30 seconds. The traditional approach, where a response time of 10–15 minutes has been considered “good enough,” is no longer viable. Failing to act quickly is akin to reaching for an umbrella after the rain has already stopped—too late to make any difference. 

Fortunately, the industry is adapting. Advanced DDoS mitigation solutions now focus on cutting response times to a bare minimum. They can often neutralize threats within seconds. However, this isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s also about instilling confidence. Service providers must demonstrate that they can handle even the shortest attacks effectively or risk having their customers see them as ineffective. 

So, the next time you experience a sudden service interruption, it may not be a random glitch. It could be a case of “five-minute chaos,” with defenders racing against the clock to neutralize a sophisticated DDoS attack.

And in this contest, every second counts. 

Check out our Deepfield Defender web page to learn how our solution can detect and mitigate DDoS in less than 30 seconds: