DDoS: How to stay safe from virtual bug bites
In 2016, the services of multiple internet giants including Netflix, Electronic Arts, PlayStation Network, Spotify, Twitter, and HBO were brought to their knees as a Distributed Denial of Service ( DDoS) attack on DNS- provider ‘ Dyn’ reared its head. The first- of- its- kind attack, estimated to have transferred malicious traffic at a bandwidth of 1.2Tb/ s, was too big to have been jettisoned using existing cyber defences.
The attack, although unique in its scale, was hardly the first, or presumably, last. Gaurav Malik, Sales director, Limelight Network India, believes that such terabit attacks have lately become recurrent and have constantly grown in size. This year itself, a 1.3Tb/ s attack was confirmed on Github and a week later, Arbor Networks reported a 1.7Tb/ s attack on a customer of a leading US- based ISP.
TRANSACTION COST: DDoS attacks are orchestrated for various reasons – from vendetta, hacktivism, and vengeance to rivalry and extortion – and so are the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures ( TTP) adopted by cyberattackers – but the end- result is often the same. These attacks result in service outages and cause a dent in overall revenue through downtimes. A research by Neustar on 1,010 enterprises last year revealed that businesses incur an average of US$ 2.5 million as financial costs to DDoS attacks. It also revealed that loss of revenue at peak times for 63 per cent of affected businesses reached as much as US$ 100,000 per hour.
The post- war analysis of a cyberattack demonstrates that these attacks are even more detrimental to businesses in the long run. A recent Limelight Networks report revealed that 71.95 per cent of customers develops a negative opinion of a platform that has experienced a cyber attack. The same survey also showed that only 21.14 per cent customers are willing to make transactions through a website that had previously been hacked.
DDoS attacks can also be conducted to serve as a masking event for a broader network penetration goal. As businesses progressively rely on cloud servers, they are further increasing their attack surface, as an attack on any of a given Cloud Service Provider’s ( CSP) users can result in a subsequent spill over. However, managing and countering DDoS attacks, as well as the other cybersecurity threats, is although challenging, but not an impossible task
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: Extending quality experience to the end- user entails protection from a variety of potential threats. Security not only has to be provided to the data at the source but also to the data at rest, in transit
as well as the data in use. Today, leading CDNs are effectively countering the underlying challenges using evolved security measures. This includes passive attack mitigation through defensive protection, securing in- transit data ( from maninthe- middle attacks) using Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL) footprints, geo- fencing for limiting the control of access to a particular geographical region, Internet Protocol ( IP) blacklisting for screening out suspected compromised devices, web application firewalling, and Open Web Application Security Project ( OWASP) Top 10 secured origin servers.
State- of- the- art CDNs also integrate specialised DDoS attack interceptors and have token is at ion based video stream access controls to further prevent malicious traffic from consuming the network bandwidth. They also leverage crossorigin resource management to allow content to be sourced from multiple locations ( proxy servers) while restricting reverse data transfer to origin servers.
DDoS attacks are conducted on a day- to- day basis and are becoming more complex with vibrant TTP and technologies used by attackers. These advancements in cloud network by CDNs, however, are making online platforms more reliable, securing their service delivery even vis a- vis terabit- level DDoS attacks. Their biggest advantage is perhaps that besides managing the content requirement of a platform, CDNs are also helping them manage negative brand perceptions and eliminate losses experienced during and post such events. In a world being increasingly threatened by cyber attacks, it is time more advanced tools and technologies are adapted to turn the tables on cybercriminals and provide a secure environment for content delivery.
◗ DDoS attacks have become recurrent and have constantly increased in size
◗ Arbor Networks reported a 1.7Tbps attack on a customer of a leading US- based ISP