DDoS attacks have been no doubt a problem and a fire in the dog’s tail. Between 2019 and 2021, especially in 2021, the number of DDoS attacks and other online attacks grew by a considerable margin. It did concern and worry a lot of firms and people alike, and these attacks took down the Colonial pipeline in the United States plus Belgium’s sole internet service provider BelNet.
These attacks caused a lot of havoc last year and prompted many firms to actually consider top-notch DDoS protection and cybersecurity plans, policies, and tactics.
Do companies consider themselves invincible when having anti-DDoS protection?
A lot of companies having protection against DDoS attacks think of themselves as invulnerable to such attacks. As a matter of fact, such a notion (and a perception) is not entirely true because of a multitude of reasons.
Even if the protection is top of the line and works quite well upon connection, and has been able to fend off numerous DDoS attacks, By no means it is a fact that it will also repel and fend off attacks that can take place, today, tomorrow, the day after or any other day.
Those who are quite interested in protecting their internet resources from DDoS attacks in the most reliable way should ensure that they carry out systematic checks and routine tests to help them understand whether or not the protection package chosen to stop DDoS attacks in their steps is the right one.
The importance of stress tests and other tests for DDoS protection
Stress tests of any company’s internet resources are a worthwhile tool for a lot of purposes. They help employees and management understand a lot of the new and interesting things about the level of their DDoS protection. Here are some things to understand:
• What could happen to the internet resource in case a real attack took place?
• Are the specialists of anti-DDoS service ready to adjust their protection to the specifics of the resources and their requirements?
• How do the support of the anti-DDoS services in use work?
• What happens if the attack starts at times like Friday night or Sunday morning? Will someone from the external service provider be able to help at that time?
• Does the company’s own internal teams and divisions have access to the security settings? In case they do, what can they do with them? If not, what can they do then?
• What is the actual (not stated) capacity of the filtering system of the protection service?
Is it important to check the state of DDoS protection?
It is quite important to check DDoS protection if companies do not purchase anti-DDoS services directly from the provider and from its partner too.
The fact of the matter is that companies that are not specialists in providing security services sell access to the web interface of some solutions without fully understanding the way they work. This is the real reason for almost all the possible issues that can take place in terms of protection.
Yet, there is nothing wrong with an internet provider reselling its partner’s protection services. Then again, it is important to understand the quality of the service it provides and the extent of its support in case the company comes under attack.
Does the company have a direct connection to the anti DDoS protection service provider and its support service? Does the direct seller of anti-DDoS services have its own DDoS Protection specialists? These are the questions that need to be answered properly.
This often means that the protection is offered only theoretically (i.e. only on paper) but in reality, it either does not work, is ineffective, or only fulfills half the solution offered.
When and why does such a thing happen in terms of DDoS protection contract package signing?
In such an instance, the recommendation of most professionals is that as customers of anti-DDoS services, companies should understand how they are protecting themselves and in what ways. This is what they should do:
• Creating a list of resources needing protection, like websites, web apps, servers, IP addresses, and services associated with them like networks.
• Determining the kind of protection needed to protect these resources from DDoS attacks i.e. is it enough to filter packets at the L3 and L4 levels or traffic analysis needed at the web application (L7) level only.
• Evaluating which resources can be protected by exposing the SSL private keys and which cannot be. In particular, it is not possible to disclose the keys of apps enabling the exchange of confidential data (personal data, banking information, data processing) and other needed apps for which it is needed to comply with the said requirements of payment systems and other data security and safety standards.
