DDoS: threats and mitigation
Steve Mansfield-Devine · Network Security · 2011
It's likely that 2011 will be remembered by many as the year of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. There's nothing new about this kind of threat, but its use has increased and it has even achieved a kind of mainstream notoriety thanks to the antics of self-publicising groups like Anonymous. But how is the threat evolving? And what can you do about it? Both the size of the attacks and the frequency are increasing. Cybercrime remains the main motivation for attacks, but some are now ideologically driven – in the case of hacktivism – and we're seeing an increasing number of state actors. Mitigation can be difficult, especially if you attempt it at your organisation's perimeter. More and more companies are now offering mitigation services and, typically, these are hosted in the cloud – as far upstream as possible. Steve Mansfield-Devine explores the issues and the solutions.