DDoS Protection, Mitigation, and Defense: 8 Essential Tips

DDoS protection and mitigation services are of paramount importance today in any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. Over 10 million DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks occurred in 2020 with new attack vectors and new threat actors surfacing.   

In the first half of 2021 alone, attackers launched nearly 5.4 million DDoS attacks, an 11% increase over the H1 2020 figures. Attacker’s innovation and attack sophistication are continuously increasing and fueling a cybersecurity crisis that is impacting organizations of all kinds. So, proactive efforts towards DDoS defense are critical to ensure built-in protection against layer 3 and layer 4 attacks.

Read on to know the best practices for DDoS attack prevention and what an effective DDoS protection and mitigation service looks like.

8 Effective Tips for Distributed Denial of Service Protection, Mitigation, and Defense

1. Mitigate DDoS Attacks with Multi-Layered, Multi-Module Defense

DDoS attacks are not what they used to be 5-10 years ago. Today, we do not just have volumetric attacks where attackers flood the application/ server with large volumes of false data requests but there are protocol attacks and Layer 7/ application-layer attacks as well. Further, attackers are finding new ways to make websites unavailable to legitimate traffic and lethal methods to exploit vulnerabilities, orchestrating highly sophisticated attacks.  

Given this context, DDoS attacks cannot be prevented by simply increasing the bandwidth of the network or using traditional firewalls. Organizations need comprehensive, multi-module, and multi-layered DDoS mitigation solutions that can prevent all kinds of attacks including application-layer DDoS attacks. So, the solution you choose must be scalable, have built-in redundancies, traffic monitoring capabilities, business logic flaw detection, and vulnerability management capabilities.  

2. Early Detection and Traffic Monitoring are Critical  

Using a managed DDoS protection and mitigation service that contains an intelligent scanning tool and a next-gen Web Application Firewall (WAF), you can continuously monitor the traffic, requests, and data packets. By applying behavior, pattern, and signature analysis, you will be able to distinguish between normal and abnormal behavior/ requests. Based on this baseline, you can tune the WAF to allow or block requests, thus keeping illegitimate/ malicious users at bay.   

AI-powered WAF placed at the edge of the network not just monitors and filters traffic but helps in identifying vulnerabilities and remediating them before attackers can find them. Since such solutions are managed by certified security experts, the best DDoS protection and mitigation service is equipped to identify and secure even business logic flaws and 0-day vulnerabilities. 

3. Build a Resilient Infrastructure 

One of the key Distributed Denial-of-Service prevention best practices is to make the infrastructure and network capable of handling any thundering surge or a sudden spike in traffic. While shifting operations to the cloud, they are useful in mitigating attacks, but they do not prevent DDoS attacks. The cloud offers greater bandwidth than any on-premise solution.   

The best way to make the infrastructure and network resilient is by using a global Content Delivery Network (CDN). The CDN globally disperses the data centers on different networks, caches the application, and does not allow direct access to the origin server. Further, when a scalable WAF is used, it has built-in redundancies and automatically scales to observe any load.  

4. Get Real-Time Intelligence and Act on Them 

Complete visibility into the application and traffic, holistic reporting, centralized management, security analytics, and real-time alerts are all necessary for effective distributed denial of service protection. Based on this real-time intelligence, you need to continuously tune your WAF and security solutions to prevent attacks.    

Measures such as rate-limiting, Geo-access limiting, access limiting based on reputation scores, and so on based on real-time insights go a long way in preventing DDoS attacks. 

5. Know the Attack Symptoms   

From spotty internet connection on the intranet to intermittent website disconnection to inexplicable network slowdowns, DDoS attacks show early warning signs. By identifying these signs early, you can effectively investigate the situation and prevent attacks.  

6. Good Cyber Hygiene is Indispensable

From phishing attacks to default passwords to security misconfigurations, unhygienic cybersecurity practices are the leading causes of DDoS attacks. So, you must always keep your application clean, reduce the attack surface, and follow all the cybersecurity best practices. Further, you must educate all your users to always practice good cyber hygiene.  

7. Create a DDoS Response Plan  

Despite the best efforts, DDoS attacks occur. When organizations have a robust DDoS response plan, they respond more quickly, thus, minimizing the damages and recovering faster.  

8. Watch Out for Secondary Attacks   

DDoS attacks are often used as a smokescreen for other attacks. Unless your DDoS protection and mitigation service is a part of your security solution, you will not be able to effectively detect and mitigate such secondary attacks.

The Way Forward: Finding the Right DDoS Protection and Mitigation Service  

Onboard a managed, unmetered, intelligent, and comprehensive DDoS Protection and Mitigation Service like AppTrana today to secure your application against all kinds of DDoS attacks and ensure it is always available.  

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