Don’t let the DDoS attack interrupt your business operation for reputational and financial loss. Use cloud-based denial-of-service protection to prevent getting hacked.
Anyone with bad intentions can hire a hacking service for a targeted attack. Malware tools are accessible, easy to use, and effective. Not just large companies, but cybercriminals are looking for any size of vulnerable victims, including personal blogs, e-commerce shops, and small to medium businesses.
One type of attack is particularly dangerous and increasingly common. It is called a distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS for short.
In a DDoS attack, a set of compromised, distributed systems — servers, home computers, Internet-of-Things devices, or anything connected to the internet — is used to overwhelm a targeted system with a flood of requests, to the point in which the attacked system gets saturated enough to refuse to work.
Since the flood comes from many scattered sources, it is difficult to identify the attacker or to mitigate the attack. DDoS attacks are unpredictable, and some of the latest attacks are ridiculously dangerous. It was in a range of 800 to 900 Gbps.
Also Read: Best Cyber Threat Maps to Monitor Real-Time Threats
Attackers can use many techniques to DDoS your online business. Some of the popular ones are the following.
- UDP fragment
- DNS, NTP, UDP, SYN, SSPD, ACK flood
- CharGEN attack
- TCP anomaly
The reasons for an attack could be many. Firstly, the victims are hand-picked; they are never chosen at random. Maybe a competitor wants to kick you out of business, or perhaps someone profoundly dislikes the content you publish –any excuse could be sufficient for someone to invest a couple of hundred dollars to attack your site.
Let’s take a look at some of the best cloud-based DDoS detection and protection solutions available.
Akamai
Kona DDoS Defender is the name of the cloud-based solution Akamai offers to stop the threat of a DDoS attack. It combines the uninterrupted service of a Security Operations Center (SOC) with Akamai’s Intelligent Platform, which offers high scalability and guarantees the continuous operation of the website, even in the event of an attack.
Akamai’s Intelligent Platform is distributed worldwide, providing the ability to handle between 15% and 30% of the total global web traffic. It offers the necessary scalability to face even the biggest DDoS attack. When an attack occurs, Kona DDoS Defender automatically deflects SYN or UDP floods and absorbs HTTP GET and POST floods at the perimeter of the network, preventing them from reaching the core applications.
Gcore
The global DDoS protection service by Gcore protects your website, server, and applications against complex DDoS attacks. It provides protection with over 1 Tbps total filtering capacity at three layers: the network layer (L3), transport layer (L4), and application layer (L7) on six continents.
This real-time intelligent traffic filtering technology allows Gcore DDoS protection to analyze statistical, signature, technical, and behavioral factors all at once.
Gcore provides 2 types of remote DDoS protection integration:
- Buy protected server
- Protect your server around the world through the GRE tunnel.
Gcore guarantees SLA at 99.9% and false positive rates of less than 0.01%. You will also get l 24/7 quality technical support.
You can try Gcore protection products for free and get a consultation from a security expert by submitting a request.
AppTrana
AppTrana provides instant protection against vulnerabilities identified & ensures round-the-clock protection against DDoS & emerging security threats.
- Infrastructure Protection (Layer 3 & 4).
- Website Protection (Layer 7)
- Fully Managed DDoS protection with 24×7 monitoring and unlimited custom rule updates by security experts in real-time based on alerts and vulnerability risks found on-site to ensure the availability of the website.
AppTrana’s Global Threat Intelligence platform ensures protection is continuously on, accurate, and up to date with defense against the latest threats.
AppTrana DDoS protection is available in AppTrana Advanced and Premium plans. You can get it started with the trial plan to enjoy the services of application scanning, web application firewall, and CDN. Onboarding happens in a few minutes, with zero downtime during the transition.
Do read our detailed review of AppTrana Security Solution.
Link11
Link11 is a leading IT security provider focused on DDoS protection for websites and IT infrastructures. The cloud-based protection solution guarantees availability at all times thanks to the sophisticated use of artificial intelligence.
The company offers two solutions at once against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks with its patented 360-degree protection to either protect critical network infrastructure or defend against web application attacks.
Attacks are contained with zero time-to-mitigate for known vectors and in under 10 seconds for unknown vectors. Not only does the solution deliver unlimited protection in terms of attack duration, but it also runs fully automatically and as a permanent service to eliminate human error.
In addition, Link11 operates its own international service and 24/7 hotline to provide customers with a straightforward and fast setup – even in an emergency. The Link11 Security Operation Center (LSOC) regularly published reports related to new risks and trends in the DDoS threat landscape.
Sucuri
Sucuri offers a DDoS mitigation service that automatically detects and blocks illegitimate requests and traffic. The Sucuri service is backed by a cloud-based network capable of mitigating attacks against web applications or large networks. With the aid of machine learning technology and by correlating data across its global network, Sucuri is able to protect a website from security threats not yet discovered.
The DDoS mitigation service is part of an all-in-one website security platform that includes malware removal, hack cleanup, blacklist monitoring, and firewall, among others. Its three plans offer different levels of service, from basic to enterprise, and their prices range from $ 199.99 per year to $ 499.99 per year.
Netscout
Through its Arbor Threat Mitigation System (TMS) and Availability Protection System (APS), Netscout offers a product suite that works in conjunction with its Arbor Sightline Solution to surgically remove up to 140 Tbps of DDoS attack traffic from the customer’s network, with no interruptions of the core network services.
It works with IPv4 or IPv6 infrastructure, and it is capable of stopping DDoS attacks through mobile apps, protecting the performance and availability of mobile networks.
Arbor APS offers many deployment options, including an on-premise appliance, a virtualized solution, and a managed service. The solution provides proactive mitigation capabilities to stop known and emerging threats before they can affect application availability, thanks to its own Atlas infrastructure, which watches ⅓ of all internet traffic.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare’s always-on DDoS protection solution is based on the intelligence of its constantly learning global network. Called Anycast, this network spans more than 190 cities, with all the stack of security services running at each point of presence. This infrastructure allows Cloudflare to provide a layered security approach that consolidates many DDoS capabilities (layer 3/4/7, DNS amplification/reflection, SMURF, ACK, etc.) into a single service.
From the user’s perspective, the DDoS solution can be controlled through an intuitive interface that allows you to secure online properties with a few clicks quickly. Cloudflare pricing plans cover unlimited mitigation, regardless of the size of the attack, with no penalties for spikes and no extra or hidden costs.
Alibaba
Anti-DDoS Pro by Alibaba can mitigate high-volume attacks up to 10 Tbps and support all protocols TCP/UDP/HTTP/HTTPS.
You can use Anti-DDoS to protect not just hosted in Alibaba but as well as hosted on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc. If your application is hosted in China, then there are very few CBSPs that can offer security protection, and Alibaba is one of them.
It is not just about mitigating the risk, but the Alibaba Anti-DDoS solution can help to track the source of attacks. Charges are based on usage, and you are in full control to customize the strategies for your business to reduce the cost.
AWS Shield
Amazon offers a DDoS protection service called AWS Shield, specifically for applications hosted on AWS. The protection service provides always-on detection and online, automatic mitigation that can be used without requiring AWS Support.
Amazon offers AWS Shield in two service plans: Standard and Advanced. AWS Shield Standard is available to all AWS customers at no extra cost. It protects against the most common DDoS attacks, which generally take place in layers 3 or 4 of the network stack.
The Advanced version offers detection and mitigation of sophisticated, large-scale DDoS attacks, together with real-time visualization and AWS WAF, a firewall for web applications. AWS Shield Advanced also offers uninterrupted access to the AWS DDoS Response Team (DRT) and protection against DDoS peaks.
Cloud Armor
If you are hosting an application on Google Cloud, do try Cloud Armor. The only limitation is that it works only with Google Cloud HTTP(s) load balancer.0
You’ll benefit from the Google experience to protect their services like Gmail, YouTube, Search, etc. Some of the benefits of Cloud Armor are:
- Protection against infrastructure and application
- Create custom rules
- IP and Geo-based access controls
- Powerful logging on Stackdriver
Imperva
Imperva DDoS Protection Services is a well-renowned cloud-based solution that protects organizations from all types of attacks, including volumetric, application layer, and state exhaustion.
The company claims it protects 6k plus enterprises and millions of people on a day-to-day basis. The company has been positioned as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: DDoS Mitigation Solutions, Q1 2021.
It integrates best-in-class multi-layered protection technologies like Machine learning (ML) for behavioral analysis and identifies malicious traffic by analyzing its patterns.
Imperva’s reputation database contains known information on bad IP addresses or websites within the shared database maintained with other service providers.
The company has large global networks of scrubbing centers that can absorb and mitigate even the largest DDoS attack.
Imperva provides business continuity with uninterrupted uptime and high performance. Automated attack blocking at the edge keeps networks secure from DDoS attacks, while features like instant notifications, monitoring analytics, and SIEM integration help defend against cyber-attacks.
With the advantage of getting fully protected from even the largest attack volumes due to Imperva’s strong global network and always-on protection capabilities, your business will be totally protected.
Imperva DDoS Protection Services is available as an always-on or on-demand only when needed. It can be deployed to protect any kind of asset, including websites, applications, and networks.
Fastly
The privacy-focused Fastly DDoS Mitigation service uses pattern detection and advanced traffic analysis to stop attackers before they even hit your origin servers. It stops DDoS attacks by using packet filtering, rate limiting, challenge-response authentication, and IP blocking at the edge of the network.
A team of security experts is also standing by 24/7 to help responders react quickly and effectively during an attack. All that, combined with ongoing security monitoring, makes Fastly a trusted partner when it comes to proving your business can withstand even the most sophisticated attacks.
Its network has 277+ Tbps capability to handle such huge magnitude DDoS attacks. It helps businesses keep running as its network acts as a DDoS scrubbing center and filters out the malicious requests coming to the said business before it go to the origin of it.
Fastly’s real-time, flexible logging and observability capabilities help provide better visibility into HTTP(S) traffic, thereby segregating legitimate users from attack traffic so as to be able to provide effective mitigation.
Fastly can adapt itself in real time to evolving DDoS attack vectors; hence, it can push changes globally within seconds without hampering performance.
With that, we come to the end of the list of Cloud-Based DDoS Protection Software. Let’s now learn a little about how to prevent DDoS attacks because, after all, prevention is better than cure!
How to prevent DDoS attacks?
If you own a small business with an equally small website, or you run a blog or a personal website, then you need to do something to avoid being a victim of a DDoS attack.
One option is to hire an MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) to take care of all possible cyber threats. This includes intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning, anti-viral services, and provision of firewall and VPN technologies, among other services.
A good MSSP will give you peace of mind, but probably at a high cost. In case you have most of the security bases covered and you only need to protect your site from DDoS, you can hire DDoS Protection as a Service (DPaaS) from your ISP or your hosting provider.
If you prefer a more DIY-ish solution, the first thing to implement is the detection and mitigation of DDoS. To detect a DDoS attack, you need to monitor incoming traffic to your website and search for any pattern that could imply an attack in the process.
A sudden surge in traffic could be a signal, but you need to determine if the surge is a spike in legitimate user traffic or if it is the symptom of a DDoS attack, and that is not always an easy task.
Once you detect a true DDoS attack, you can identify the IP addresses sending the illegitimate traffic and block them with the help of your hosting provider or a traffic-filtering device, such as a router or a firewall. It sounds easy, right?
Well, if you take into account that a typical DDoS attack involves many millions of data packets per second, you can conclude that the DIY option is not viable, and you should hire an affordable cloud-based DDoS protection service.
How do DDoS protection services work?
An effective anti-DDoS solution must take care of the following tasks: detection, diversion, filtering, and analysis.
Detection means identifying traffic flow deviations that could be foretelling a DDoS assault. An effective anti-DDoS solution should be able to recognize the attack as soon as possible, avoiding false positives.
Diversion means to reroute the traffic away, either to discard it or to be filtered. By filtering, we mean to weed the DDoS traffic out, identifying it as malicious. An effective anti-DDoS solution will do this without affecting the experience of your legitimate users.
Finally, analysis is the review of traffic logs to gather information about attacks, both to identify the attacker and to enhance future detection activities.
When you need to compare anti-DDoS solutions, network capacity is an important factor to take into account. It is measured in Gbps (gigabits per second) or Tbps (terabits per second) and indicates how much attack intensity the protection can withstand.
The cloud-based solution generally offers a network capacity of the order of terabits per second. This is much more than any website may require.
Other important measures of service level are forwarding rates and time to mitigation. The forwarding rate represents the capacity of the solution to process data packets and is measured in millions of packets per second (Mpps).
Attacks commonly reach 300-500 Gbps, and some could scale up to 1 Tbps. The anti-DDoS solution processing capacity needs to top that in order to be effective.
Time to mitigation varies according to the method that the solution provider employs to detect an attack. An always-on solution with preemptive detection should be able to offer almost instantaneous mitigation. But this aspect needs to be tested in the field under real-life conditions. Obviously, all these considerations must be weighed against the cost.
Final Words 👨🏫
If all the houses in your neighborhood have alarms, then yours should also have one, or it would be the preferred target for burglars. The same applies to your website or web application: you don’t want it to be one of the few without DDoS protection, or it may soon be attacked. A solution against DDoS is a reasonable and necessary investment if you want your online business to stay alive and kicking for a long time.