Site Under Attack Right Now? Let's Stabilize It Fast.
If your store, SaaS or API is being hammered by a DDoS, flooded with bots, or buckling under suspicious traffic, you need calm, senior hands on the Cloudflare dashboard — not a ticket queue. We triage the incident, get you stable, and tell you exactly what happened. Engagements start from $2,000.
Emergency Cloudflare support is a rapid-response engagement for sites that are under active attack, overwhelmed by bots, hit by a DDoS, or unstable right now. We triage the incident, stabilize traffic using Cloudflare controls — Under Attack Mode, emergency WAF rules, rate limiting, origin protection and bot filtering — tune to reduce false positives, verify recovery, and hand you a post-incident report. Engagements start from $2,000 (day rate ≈ $1,200–$2,000), scaled to severity, traffic and access. Cloudflare absorbs malicious traffic at the edge; it does not replace secure code, patching, fraud tools, backups or a full incident-response team.
What does emergency Cloudflare support actually do?
The goal in an incident is simple and ordered: keep real customers able to use the site, stop the malicious traffic from reaching your origin, and avoid making things worse. Cloudflare gives us powerful levers to do that at the network edge — before junk traffic ever touches your servers.
When you need this
- Your site is slow, timing out, or returning 5xx errors under unusual load
- Origin CPU, database connections or PHP-FPM workers are maxed out
- A Layer 7 (HTTP) flood, credential-stuffing run or scraper swarm is hitting login, search, cart or checkout
- A volumetric DDoS is saturating bandwidth or connections
- Checkout, API or admin is degraded during a launch, sale or ticket on-sale spike
- You suspect a competitor, extortion attempt, or a botnet — but you're not sure what's real
How to reach us fast
Use the contact form and tick the "Urgent / under attack" checkbox so it routes straight to an engineer instead of the normal queue. Include your domain, your Cloudflare plan, what you're seeing (errors, graphs, timestamps), and whether you already have a Cloudflare account we can be added to.
The faster we get read access to Analytics and Security Events, the faster we can tell signal from noise.
Request emergency help →What happens right after you contact us?
An incident is not the time for a big redesign. We move in a deliberate order — assess, stabilize, then tune — so we never trade an outage for a self-inflicted one.
1. Fast assessment
We get access (or screen-share with your team), read Cloudflare Analytics and Security Events, and identify attack vector, target paths, top source ASNs/countries, user-agents and request patterns. We confirm what's malicious versus legitimate traffic.
2. Immediate stabilization
We apply the lightest control that works — often Under Attack Mode or targeted rate limiting on the hot endpoints — to get you breathing room without blanket-blocking real customers.
3. Emergency rules
We write precise WAF custom rules and rate limits scoped to the attack signature (paths, methods, headers, ASNs, JA3/bot signals) so legitimate traffic keeps flowing while the flood is dropped at the edge.
4. Origin protection
We make sure the attack can't bypass Cloudflare — locking the origin to Cloudflare IPs, validating Authenticated Origin Pulls or Tunnel, and confirming the real server IP isn't exposed in DNS, mail or old records.
5. Tune & verify
We watch the impact live, dial back false positives, confirm checkout/login/API work for real users, and keep adjusting until the site is stable and customers are unblocked.
6. Post-incident report
Once you're stable, you get a written summary: what happened, what we changed, what's temporary, and the prioritized fixes to stop it recurring.
Which Cloudflare controls do we use to stop an attack?
Each lever has a job. In an incident we combine them, scope them tightly, and prefer surgical rules over heavy-handed blocks that punish your real customers.
Under Attack Mode
A fast, temporary shield that challenges visitors before they reach your origin — ideal for soaking up an HTTP flood while we build precise rules behind it. We treat it as a tourniquet, not a permanent setting.
Emergency WAF rules
Custom WAF expressions scoped to the attack: specific paths, methods, headers, query patterns, ASNs or countries. Block, challenge or rate-limit the exact signature without breaking normal traffic.
Rate limiting
Per-endpoint limits on login, search, cart, checkout and API routes to throttle credential stuffing, scraping and brute force — protecting both your servers and your databases from being overwhelmed.
Bot-traffic triage
We separate good bots (search, monitoring) from bad ones using Bot Management signals, verified-bot lists and behavior, then challenge or block the abusive automation hitting your hot paths.
DDoS mitigation
Cloudflare's network absorbs volumetric Layer 3/4 floods automatically; for Layer 7 we add adaptive rules and tuning. See ongoing DDoS protection for e-commerce for the permanent setup.
Origin lockdown
Firewall rules, Authenticated Origin Pulls, Cloudflare Tunnel and DNS hygiene to ensure attackers can't skip Cloudflare and hit your server's real IP directly.
Why "safe rollback" is part of every emergency change
The fastest way to turn an incident into a worse incident is to block your own paying customers or break checkout. So everything we do during an emergency is built to be reversible and observable.
- Rules deployed in a controlled order, with log/challenge before block where time allows
- A record of every change so any single rule can be reverted in seconds
- Live monitoring of error rates, conversion paths and Security Events as we go
- Clear labelling of temporary emergency settings vs. permanent ones
- A documented "undo" plan before the incident is considered closed
Who this is for
E-commerce stores on Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, Shopware and BigCommerce; SaaS and API businesses; marketplaces; ticketing and event platforms; publishers; and agencies whose client is on fire and needs senior help now.
If you're an agency or software house, we can work quietly behind your brand — see Cloudflare for agencies.
What's included — and what isn't
Emergency support is focused on getting you stable and giving you a clear path forward. Here's exactly where the line sits.
What's included
- Rapid incident triage and attack-vector identification
- Live stabilization via Under Attack Mode, rate limiting and emergency WAF rules
- Bot-traffic and DDoS mitigation tuning at the Cloudflare edge
- Origin protection review (IP exposure, firewall, Authenticated Origin Pulls)
- False-positive tuning so real customers and checkout keep working
- A written post-incident report with prioritized hardening steps
- A handover call to your team or, if you prefer, an ongoing care plan
What's not included
- Fixing insecure application code, plugins or themes (we'll flag them)
- Server, database or hosting administration on your origin
- Payment-fraud, chargeback or anti-money-laundering tooling
- Backup, disaster-recovery or data-restoration services
- Legal, regulatory, PCI or breach-notification advice
- A guaranteed outcome, "100% protection" or guaranteed uptime (unless covered by a signed SLA)
When Cloudflare is not enough: Cloudflare reduces, filters and absorbs a huge amount of malicious traffic at the edge, and emergency tuning can stabilize most attacks quickly — but it does not replace secure application development, regular patching, payment-fraud tools, server hardening, a tested backup strategy, legal/compliance review, or a full enterprise incident-response and forensics team. If your application has been compromised (not just attacked), or sensitive data may be exposed, you also need your own security, legal and hosting teams involved. We'll tell you honestly when an issue is outside what edge controls can solve.
How much does emergency Cloudflare support cost?
Emergency engagements start from $2,000, with a day rate of roughly $1,200–$2,000 (≈ £950–£1,600 / €1,100–€1,900). All figures are indicative; final pricing depends on severity, traffic volume, number of domains, your Cloudflare plan, complexity and the level of support you need.
Not on fire yet, but want a tuned setup before your next sale, launch or on-sale? Start with a Cloudflare audit or a WAF setup instead — it's far cheaper than an emergency.
After the fire: the post-incident report and staying protected
Once you're stable, the temporary controls shouldn't just live forever as untuned blocks. We document the incident and turn the lessons into a durable setup.
- A plain-English timeline: what happened, when, and how big it was
- Every change we made, what's temporary, and how to safely retire it
- The root weaknesses that let the attack hurt — and how to close them
- A prioritized hardening roadmap across WAF, bot protection and DDoS
Many clients move onto managed Cloudflare services after an incident, so rules are monitored and tuned continuously and the next spike is a non-event — not a 2am scramble.
What to have ready
To get help fastest, gather: your domain(s), Cloudflare account email and plan, whether you're proxied (orange-cloud), a description of the symptoms with timestamps, any screenshots of Analytics/Security Events, and who on your side can grant access or push a config change.
No Cloudflare account yet, or DNS elsewhere? Tell us — we'll guide an emergency onboarding as part of the response.
Start the emergency intake →Under attack? Get a senior Cloudflare engineer on it now.
Tell us what you're seeing and tick the urgent box — we'll triage fast, stabilize your site, and give you a clear report afterward. If you're not mid-incident but want to be ready for the next spike, book an audit instead.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a Cloudflare emergency?
Any situation where your live site is actively degraded by hostile or abnormal traffic: a DDoS attack, an HTTP (Layer 7) flood, credential-stuffing or brute-force on login, aggressive scrapers or bots overwhelming search/cart/checkout, or a traffic spike that's maxing out your origin servers. If real customers can't reliably use the site right now, it's an emergency.
How fast can you respond to an attack?
We prioritise active-incident requests over the normal queue. Use the contact form and tick the "Urgent / under attack" checkbox, include your domain, Cloudflare plan and what you're seeing, and we'll move to triage as quickly as a senior engineer is available. Response speed depends on demand and how fast we get access to your Cloudflare Analytics and Security Events — read access alone lets us start diagnosing immediately.
Will turning on protection block my real customers?
It can if it's done bluntly, which is exactly why we work in order: assess first, apply the lightest effective control (often Under Attack Mode or targeted rate limiting), then replace it with precise WAF rules scoped to the attack signature. We monitor error rates and checkout/login flows live and tune out false positives. Every change is recorded so it can be reverted in seconds.
Do I need to already be using Cloudflare?
It helps, because we can act immediately on an existing account. If you're not on Cloudflare yet, or your DNS is elsewhere, we can guide an emergency onboarding (adding the domain, moving DNS, going proxied) as part of the response — though that adds time compared to a site that's already proxied through Cloudflare.
How much does emergency Cloudflare support cost?
Emergency engagements start from $2,000, with a day rate of roughly $1,200–$2,000 (≈ £950–£1,600 / €1,100–€1,900). These figures are indicative; final pricing depends on severity, traffic volume, number of domains, your Cloudflare plan, complexity and how much support you need. If you're not yet under attack, a Cloudflare audit from $600 is a far cheaper way to get protected in advance.
Can Cloudflare guarantee my site stays up during an attack?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who promises that. Cloudflare's global network absorbs and filters a very large share of malicious traffic at the edge, and emergency tuning stabilizes most attacks quickly, but no provider can promise 100% protection or guaranteed uptime outside a specific signed SLA. We're honest about what edge controls can and can't fix — and we'll tell you when an issue belongs to your application, hosting or security team instead.
What happens after the attack is over?
You receive a written post-incident report covering what happened, every change we made, which settings are temporary, and a prioritized list of fixes to prevent a repeat. We can then hand over to your team or move you onto managed Cloudflare services (from $1,000/mo) so your rules are continuously monitored and tuned and the next spike doesn't become another emergency.
My application may be compromised, not just attacked — can you help?
Emergency Cloudflare support stabilizes traffic at the edge and reduces the attack's impact, but a confirmed compromise (malware, data exposure, attacker access to your servers) needs more than Cloudflare. That requires your own security, hosting and legal teams for forensics, cleanup, backups/restoration and any breach-notification obligations. We'll help contain the traffic side and flag clearly what falls outside what edge controls can solve.