In today’s increasingly interconnected world, DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent and hazardous. That is why it is essential to know how to block DDoS attacks with automation.
An effective defense strategy can save time and money in the event of a DDoS attack, while also increasing your chances of success. Here are five ways automation can assist.
Detecting DDoS Attacks
DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks are a widespread cyberthreat that can disrupt websites and services. These attacks are typically carried out by hackers and cybercriminals using botnets – networks of compromised computers – to send false traffic to the target host.
DDoS attacks come in many forms, each targeting a different layer of the network and its infrastructure. Common ones include ICMP floods, UDP floods and SYN floods.
ICMP floods occur when an attacker attempts to overburden the bandwidth of a network’s servers and devices by sending out large numbers of ICMP messages intended for error correction. Unfortunately, these floods often overwhelm the target host’s capacity for processing traffic, rendering it unusable by legitimate users.
Another common DDoS attack is a stateless UDP flood. This attack uses IP packets containing the UDP protocol to overload targeted hosts’ ports, making them inaccessible.
To detect this type of DDoS attack, a system that monitors all traffic entering and leaving your network can identify unusual patterns of activity and send alerts. This enables you to act swiftly, thwarting DDoS attacks before they have the chance to spread.
A DDoS attack can have devastating consequences for businesses of all sizes and industries, costing companies anywhere from thousands to millions of dollars in lost revenue annually. Recognizing and responding to a DDoS attack is essential in protecting your network from becoming a full-scale catastrophe.
One way to detect a DDoS attack is by checking your router’s backscatter logs. These records indicate which connections originate from the same IP address or range.
The most efficient way to protect your organization’s network is by employing software that can automatically identify and block malicious traffic before it reaches your system. This technology relies on artificial intelligence, which scans your network for potential threats before they impact operations.
Signs that a DDoS attack may be underway include an unexpected surge in web traffic. You may also observe your internet connection becoming slow or your website becoming unavailable.
Preventing DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are cyberattacks that can render a network or server unresponsive, leading to extended downtime, lost revenue, and dissatisfied users.
Attackers use botnets – networks of malware-infected computers, mobile devices and IoT gadgets under their control – to flood targets with fake traffic. This can prevent legitimate users from accessing a website or cause it to crash entirely.
The size of DDoS attacks continues to expand, and even small ones can have a major effect. One such event in 2018 exceeded 1 terabit per second (Tbps) in size.
Maintaining your network’s safety from DDoS attacks requires an integrated combination of automated measures. These may include network infrastructure, application security and security awareness training.
Automated DDoS protection systems automatically identify and block various attacks by recognizing suspicious patterns in real-time. For instance, they can quickly route requests to cloud-based scrubbing centers, blocking them from reaching your website.
They can send alerts to the appropriate people if a high volume of attacks take place, and take adaptive escalation action in an adaptive fashion to minimize damage without human intervention.
For example, they can immediately stop SYN flood traffic if it reaches a zero-second SLA, or automatically redirect all HTTP traffic to a web application defender which protects against application-layer attacks.
Automating the prevention of DDoS attacks can save your business time, money and stress in the event of an attack. It also allows IT teams to be more proactive about mitigating risk – something especially pertinent as the threat landscape changes and new methods of attack emerge.
Additionally, it provides comprehensive records that can be utilized for analysis and developing future defenses against specific types of attacks.
Automating DDoS detection also gives your organization the capacity to identify low-volume attacks that go undetected by one member of your security team. These could be indicators for more serious breaches such as ransomware.
Implementing these basic measures can help your organization avoid DDoS attacks and guarantee services are always accessible to legitimate users.
Responding to DDoS Attacks
During a DDoS attack, IT pros must be able to act quickly. If the attack is minor, they can attempt to handle it themselves; however, as the size of the problem grows larger, enlisting other IT pros for assistance will help keep things under control.
Responding to a DDoS attack begins with identifying its source. To do this, monitor, alert and track the status of your network and data center. For best results, utilize automated systems and technologies that can proactively alert you when DDoS attacks occur.
Automated detection tools like SolarWinds Security Event Manager can assist IT professionals in detecting and monitoring DDoS attacks in real-time. These systems automatically detect and filter out DDoS traffic so the company can take measures to protect itself.
If your business is facing a DDoS attack, it is essential that you alert all affected. Doing this can help minimize damage to your brand’s reputation and guarantee that you have an effective strategy in place to contain the issue.
Often, this will involve installing a load balancing server to redirect malicious traffic away from critical resources and protect the company’s operations. Load balancing servers may also be employed for redirecting DDoS attacks towards scrubbing centers or sinkholes.
Another way to protect against DDoS attacks is by monitoring network activity and the status of all your devices. Doing this will enable you to spot repetitive patterns that indicate a DDoS attack has occurred.
DDoS attacks can impact websites or network resources such as email servers, phone systems and databases. These types of assaults aim to disrupt business operations by denying legitimate users access to these resources. This may cause customers to lose faith in services they rely on – such as online banking, ecommerce shopping or medical care – which ultimately results in customer disillusionment with these services.
Monitoring DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are a grave danger to organizations with critical IT infrastructure. Not only can these disrupt customer service, but they may cause loss of business and reputation damage as well. DDoS attacks are usually carried out by botnets that infiltrate networks and compromise computers.
One of the most efficient methods to block DDoS attacks is automation. Automation ensures faster deployment of countermeasures, helping businesses prevent or mitigate DDoS attacks and minimize downtime costs.
Automated DDoS defenses also enable more informed decision-making about which countermeasure to employ. This helps IT departments ensure they are addressing the correct issue with an appropriate mitigation solution.
For effective and dependable DDoS detection, a comprehensive monitoring platform that can monitor both network and application traffic is necessary. Single server-based solutions cannot handle the massive amount of data currently being generated.
For instance, it takes a considerable amount of compute and memory to monitor high volumes of flow data on an enterprise-wide level. This is especially true when performing dynamic baselining, where one must scan vast amounts of traffic information and search back days or weeks for anomalies.
Administrators with access to a reliable DDoS detection system can quickly identify attackers and their command and control servers. SolarWinds Security Event Manager, for instance, maintains an extensive community-sourced list of known bad actors that administrators can use to automatically block IPs from accessing their organization’s network.
The tool also provides detailed reporting on detected DDoS attacks, such as dropped connections and suspicious IP addresses. This data gives administrators a comprehensive view of the frequency and impact of DDoS incidents against their network so they can make management decisions with confidence.
Automated, context-rich detection helps users quickly identify the source of an attack and its effect on user experience in real time. This information can guide more informed mitigation decisions while reducing false positives.
To protect against DDoS attacks, it is essential to keep your web and application servers online as much as possible. This can be achieved by allocating resources efficiently, guaranteeing they have enough bandwidth and computing power to handle DDoS attacks, and designing your network and systems to absorb additional traffic.
