DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service and refers to a cyberattack whereby a compromised “bot-net” network floods a server or a network with tons of malicious traffic. The threat of this type of online attack has been increasing exponentially over the past few years, potentially causing havoc to businesses around the world. The cost of succumbing to the threat of a DDoS is huge, with the resultant website downtime often costing thousands of dollars for every minute the attack lasts — not to mention the dent on consumer confidence in your brand. Given that the average DDoS incident lasts for 45 minutes, that’s a massive amount of lost revenue. This is why DDoS mitigation has become a critical part of any business’s cybersecurity strategy — helping detect, deflect, and absorb attack traffic before it disrupts operations.
However, like all cyberattacks, here are steps you can take to mitigate at least some of the danger – and it won’t take a professional hacker to pull it off. We’re going to outline the four key stages to protect your online systems from DDoS attacks.
Table of contents
Stage 1: Detection
You can’t fend off a DDoS attack until you’ve identified the threat, making detection the foundation of your mitigation strategy. Modern detection systems are designed to monitor network traffic to identify potential attacks, using advanced algorithms to balance accuracy and sensitivity. Basic, free cyber security programs like Windows Defender or Avast may not be able to deal with this sort of threat as they are, as their names imply, antiviruses, but a more comprehensive security suit designed specifically for business networks should be able to detect any potential DDoS attacks coming your way.
Stage 2: Diversion for DDoS Mitigation
Your DDoS mitigation four stages strategy now moves to the diversion phase. The primary weapon that DDoS attacks use is less malicious material than a bombardment of traffic that aims to collapse your entire network. Diversion of that traffic is crucial then and this step involves diverting incoming traffic to be filtered and analyzed, with diversion systems making real-time decisions regarding traffic handling to prevent any single node from becoming overwhelmed. The overarching aim is to minimize downtime while effectively dealing with malicious traffic.
Stage 3: Filtering
Next comes the filtering stage. Because DDoS attacks primarily work through flooding your network with unwanted traffic, it’s crucial to be able to separate unwanted traffic, from wanted traffic. The more advanced DDoS attacks will make it as hard as possible to separate real traffic to your site and “fake” traffic. At this point, then, advanced systems must separate legitimate from DDoS traffic in real time, using techniques such as behavioral analysis, deep packet inspection, and rate limiting to process vast amounts of data. The very best systems deploy machine learning to identify and protect against sophisticated DDoS attack patterns and adapt to newly emerging threats.
Stage 4: Analysis for DDoS Mitigation
The final stage of DDoS mitigation is analysis. Assessing traffic logs, investigating source IPs, checking out attack vectors, and considering how effective the mitigation measures proved to be are all important parts of this process. When it comes to choosing a system to protect against DDoS attacks, it’s a good idea to look for one that incorporates detailed reports and real-time dashboards. These help security teams fully understand the source, scope, and impact of the attack, fine-tune the mitigation process, and predict potential future threats.
The Takeaway: It’s Crucial to Protect Your Business From DDoS Attacks
The threat posed by DDoS attacks is not only on the rise but is adapting as businesses take on new technologies. For example, the Internet of Things (IoT) is providing a new area vulnerable to attack, while APIs are expected to be increasingly targeted over the next year. Further, hyper-volume attacks are growing, driving up the threat level still further.
With this in mind, having an effective DDoS mitigation strategy in place is vital for all businesses. At its heart, this involves deploying an advanced system able to identify, divert, and filter malicious traffic in real time while minimizing site downtime. With unprotected businesses facing a cost of, on average, $270,000 per attack, your business really can’t afford not to bring such a system on board for DDoS mitigation.
