Understanding How to Protect Against DDoS Attacks
Distributed Denial of Service attacks, or DDoS attacks, are becoming more common. These attacks can be a huge problem for any type of business that has an internet presence. Are you prepared to protect against DDoS attacks against your server?
Even with sophisticated DDoS protection, major online services such as Twitter and Spotify can suffer due to a DDoS attack. If your server has no DDoS protection in place, then you don’t stand a chance against these attacks.
While it’s impossible to prevent DDoS attacks completely, there are ways to prepare so that you won’t be put into a situation you can’t handle. In this article, we will briefly describe what a DDoS attack is and highlight key ways you can protect your business.
Basics of DDoS Attacks
DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service attack. Simply put, it is when a person or entity directs traffic towards a server in an attempt to overload the connection and bring the site offline. There are hundreds of different attack types that may occur to achieve this result.
DDoS Attack Types
Generally, the most common type of DDoS attack is a volumetric attack. This is an attack on your site’s network that is created by overloading a site with “fake” users and running up the bandwidth.
A volumetric attack can be done by using many different hacked computers or infected devices. This creates a centralized botnet that can be initiated at any time to begin an attack. An attack may also be done using powerful and advanced, centralized hardware.
During an attack, your bandwidth is overloaded and only a certain amount of users can log into your site at one time. This prevents legitimate users from logging in.
The three main types of DDoS attacks include:
- Volume Based Attacks
- Protocol Attacks
- Application Layer Attacks
Reasons for DDoS Attacks
There are different reasons why someone may attack a site. It could be due to activism, extortion, competitive brand damaging, or even boredom.
Whatever the reason, it can be a very annoying problem because it denies legitimate customers access to your site. Users who try to access your site may be denied access, become frustrated, and move on.
Top DDoS Prevention Tips
1. Improve Your Network Infrastructure
Maintaining proper network infrastructure can go a long way to protect against DDoS attacks. Fortifying your network architecture can help to make sure you are protected during a DDoS attack or during any sort of network problems that may occur.
The main thing you can do to boost your network infrastructure is to create diversity with your network connections.
If your organization needs to depend on servers or the internet, it’s important to make sure that your resources are dispersed geographically. You shouldn’t rely on one specific data center but should make use of several locations to be well protected.
Additionally, it’s important that your data centers are not all connected to the same ISP (internet service provider). Even if you leverage multiple data center locations, it may not provide sufficient protection if they use the same network backend.
2. Increase Your Bandwidth and Connection Speed
Another important tactic to use to protect against DDoS attacks is to work with a provider like ServerMania that offers gigabit connections. While this does not provide complete DDoS protection, It is significantly more difficult for an attacker to saturate a gigabit connection than a 100Mbps port.
One major vulnerability that is exploited in DDoS attacks is to exceed your bandwidth limit and block legitimate users from your site. For these common types of attacks, volumetric attacks, scaling up your bandwidth limit can sometimes be a solution. This will allow more traffic to come in, in addition to the troublesome DDoS traffic. This isn’t an ideal solution as it means you’re paying for bandwidth for bogus traffic, but it is an option to consider.
3. Invest in Services to Protect Against DDoS Attacks
The best way to protect against DDoS attacks is by investing in a server provider that offers DDoS protection services. These services use sophisticated DDoS mitigation appliances to instantly protect your site when an attack occurs. In partnership with an industry leader in DDoS protection, RioRey, ServerMania has equipped our network with the most sophisticated appliances to protect against disruptive cyber attacks.
Instant Filtering
Traffic is continuously filtered through ServerMania’s DDoS protection appliances, resulting in no delay in protection when an attack begins. DDoS attacks are typically detected and mitigated within 0 to 90 seconds.
Guaranteed Protection
Our DDoS appliances instantly protect against 25 common DDoS attacks, including any combination of attacks.
Downtime Denied
DDoS appliances automatically drop DDoS traffic and ensure legitimate traffic remains unaffected, even during large-scale attacks.
Final Thoughts
Nothing is more frustrating than to find that your website has been targeted with a DDoS attack. It can be a huge problem if your users don’t have access to your services.
Truthfully, you may never face a DDoS attack. But this is one instance where it pays to be prepared, and if one occurs, you’ll be glad you planned accordingly.
Interested in learning more about the dynamic hosting solutions ServerMania can provide for you? Contact us today to learn more.
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