Distributed denial of service (DDoS) is an attack such that the source website of a company is bombarded with a lot of requests that are more than its capacity, which then affects the ability of the website to function properly. With the rapid recurrence of such attacks, many companies whose business model requires a massive online presence such as financial institutions, online shopping centres, casinos, betting sites and others are looking for means to prevent their website from such.
How a DDoS attack works
All network resources – such as web servers – have defined limits to the number of requests that can be processed simultaneously. Also the channel that connects the server to the Internet also has a predefined bandwidth / capacity. When requests exceeds the capacity limit of any of the components in such system, there is bound to be one to the following occurrence:
- Slower response to requests.
- Some or all users’ requests may be ignored.
The aim of the attack is to ensure that the website does not function as intended,or rather users are denied access to the website, which may lead to the discrediting of the company’s name and integrity. Sometimes the attacker requests payment to put a stop to such an attack.
Also check: The untold Truths about hacking.
Anti DDoS
Risks are always prevalent, but systems of controls are built to either prevent, detect, or correct the effects. This is where Anti- DDoS solutions come in. They are solutions that utilize various techniques such as behavioural analysis, traffic signature, rate limiting to detect unusual traffic from various source addresses.
To prevent DDoS or it’s reoccurrence, listed below are questions that companies should consider before adopting any:
- What is my threat profile? Depending on the volume and approach of the attacks there are 3 types of DDoS prevention methods: Which are cloud-based, hybrid solution and premise-based solution.
- Am I in a regulated industry? Some organizations are within regulated industries that handle sensitive data. Such industry regulations control the type of prevention solution they can adopt.
- What is my budget? In selecting any solution it all comes down to money and how important the solution is to you.
Anti DDoS Solutions
- Cloudflare: Cloudflare is a solution that secures and ensures the reliability of external-facing resources such as websites, APIs, and applications. It protects internal resources such as behind-the-firewall applications and devices.
- Solarwinds Security Event Manager: This is a comprehensive platform with diverse security tools which includes anti-DDos to prevent DDoS attacks.
- Link 11: Link11 is a fully automated Cloud Security Platform that reacts in real-time and defend against all attacks, including unknown and new patterns
- AWS Shield: AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). It is a protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS. AWS Shield provides always-on detection and automatic inline mitigations that minimize application downtime and latency.
- Sucuri Website Firewall: This firewall inspects all incoming traffic to detect and block malicious traffic. It blocks layer 3, 4, and 7 DDoS attacks.
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