massive syn-floods can cause this. I have learned some tricks that can help mitigate these attacks.

echo 30 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_fin_timeout
echo 1800 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_time
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling
echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_timestamps
echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_sack
echo 1280 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_max_syn_backlog
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_syncookies
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses
echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/accept_redirects
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/log_martians
echo 65535 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_conntrack_max