#ddos attack mitigation

DDoS attacks are not only on the rise, but they are growing increasingly complex each and every year.  While DDoS have most recently been associated with attacks on US Banks such as JPMorgan Chance, HSBC and Citibank, the truth is that these attacks are not exclusive to financial institutions.  These attacks can be initiated by anyone who has a few dollars in their pocket and the desire to disrupt business operations.

Protect Your System From A DDoS Attack

A survey released by Neustar indicated that a service outage caused by something like a DDoS attack would cost their companies at least $10,000 or more per hour in lost revenues.  For small to mid-sized businesses, this is not a price that they can afford.

The good news is that there are many things which you can do to protect your computer and your network from one of these vicious attacks.  

Don't Rely On Your Firewall

Having a firewall is great, and investing in a next-gen firewall is even better.  But those which claim to have built-in DDoS protection are not equipped to deal with the many different types of attacks which are in existence today.

Your best protection against a DDoS is to invest in a service which is able to scrutinize all inbound traffic before it will even reach your firewall or the other components of your IT infrastructure. These DDoS attack mitigation solutions are designed to block excessive or malicious traffic from interrupting your web-based applications so that they remain accessible to legitimate customers and users.

Include DDoS Into Your Disaster Recovery Plan

Most businesses have a business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan which details exactly what you will do should you suffer some type of business outage or interruption.  It is important that you include DDoS mitigation procedures into this plan.  This will go a long way in helping minimize any delays in responding to an attack and help ensure that you have the necessary resources available to prevent and mitigate an attack.

Know What An Attack Looks Like

A lot of disruptions to service are the result of something like a technical issue with a network or maintenance.  If, however, you encounter any of the following system symptoms, you may be under a DDoS Attack:

·         Not being able to access a particular website or any website

·         Unusually and unexplained slow network performance

·         A spike in the number of spam emails you receive

If you are a victim of an attack, it is important to know what to look for.  Look for signs of fraud, data breaches, or any other criminal activity.  Inspect all of your system logs to determine whether or not any other malicious activities happens to take place during the time of the attack.

Know Who To Call