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First aid for DDoS attacks

Your ultimate action guide

DdOS aanval

In today’s hyper-connected world, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are no longer rare incidents. Cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to disrupt businesses, damage reputations, and compromise critical online services.

Our partner Akamai has found that the number of DDoS attacks continues to grow by more than 45% year over year. The risks have never been greater. So, what should you do if your organisation is under attack?

The growing threat of DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks occur when malicious actors flood a network with traffic, overwhelming servers and rendering services inaccessible. These attacks are sometimes used for extortion, with attackers demanding ransom in exchange for stopping the flood of malicious traffic. In some cases, DDoS attacks serve as a smokescreen for even more damaging activities, such as data breaches or malware deployments.

While DDoS attacks have been around for years, they have recently grown in both scale and complexity. Between 2021 and 2023, there was nearly a 50% increase in the number of large-scale DDoS attacks, and 2024 has set yet another record.

Want to read more about cybercrime? Check out our blog: “Cybercrime: buzz or harsh reality?”

The number of DDoS attacks continues to increase by more than 45% year after year.

Seven key steps during a DDoS attack

1. Assess your risk and current defenses
Start by evaluating your current DDoS mitigation capabilities. Are your existing defense mechanisms sufficient to handle the scale and scope of the attack? Engage your DDoS mitigation provider to assess the ongoing threat and respond quickly to any vulnerabilities.

2. Inspect critical IP spaces and subnets
Ensure that your key network resources, including critical subnets and IP spaces, are protected by mitigation controls. This helps limit the parts of your infrastructure that could be compromised by the attack.

3. Activate Always-On DDoS protection controls
Implement always-on protection controls as the first line of defense. This proactive approach reduces the burden on incident responders and minimizes the risk of emergency integration scenarios during a crisis.

4. Deploy a cloud firewall at the edge
Extend your defenses beyond traditional DDoS protection by deploying a cloud firewall at the edge, such as Akamai Prolexic’s Network Cloud Firewall. This additional security layer blocks malicious traffic before it reaches your network, reducing the load on your internal firewalls and systems.

5. Secure your DNS infrastructure
Domain Name System (DNS) attacks are a common and highly effective way to disrupt services. Use a robust DNS solution like Akamai Edge DNS to protect yourself against DNS-targeted attacks.

6. Activate your incident response plan
Ensure your incident response plan is up-to-date and activated. This plan should include a crisis team with clearly defined roles, communication tools, and pre-determined strategies for mitigating the attack. Having a well-rehearsed playbook is essential to stay calm and respond effectively during a crisis.

7. Extend protection to application and API layers
Many DDoS attacks target applications and APIs, making it crucial to secure these components. Akamai App & API Protector offers a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that blocks malicious HTTP requests and protects your applications from complex DDoS attacks.

Akamai Prolexic: Advanced protection against complex DDoS Attacks

Akamai Prolexic is an advanced platform that combines powerful machine intelligence with the expertise of over 225 global security engineers. The platform offers always-on or on-demand protection, both on-premises and in the cloud, depending on your specific needs.

What sets Prolexic apart is its resilience, thanks to proprietary infrastructure with multiple cloud scrubbing centers in 32 cities worldwide and a dedicated defense capacity of over 20 terabits per second (Tbps). Prolexic is designed to detect and mitigate even the largest DDoS attacks before they can impact your services.

Akamai DDoS protection

Want to know how Evolane can protect your organization from DDoS attacks?
Contact us today to discover how we can help you stay secure.

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