A system for diffusing denial-of-service attacks by using virtual machines is disclosed. In particular, the system may receive, from a measurement probe, a network transaction measurement associated with a first node in a network. Based on the network transaction measurement, the system may determine if the network transaction measurement satisfies a threshold measurement value. If the network transaction measurement satisfies the threshold measurement value, the system may determine that an attack is occurring at the first node in the network. The system may then identify one or more nodes that have capacity for handling traffic intended for the first node. Once the one or more nodes are identified, the system may launch virtual machines at the one or more nodes to handle legitimate traffic intended for the first node.