If you’re keeping up with what’s happening in the wonderful world of IT, you’re probably reading the blood-curdling headlines about 1.7 Tbps distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and gut-wrenching descriptions of average $40,000-per-hour costs of unmitigated attacks.
You’ve also probably digested the fact that no business is too large or too small to be a target of distributed denial of service attacks. So, it’s natural to start thinking about IT security improvements. In these initial thoughts, it’s tempting to envisage a tidy, on-site operation. It has the latest hardware and software (you’re upgrading), and your IT team is in charge. But hold on a minute. Before you go any further, consider all your options before settling on a DIY security solution. There are many reasons why the wise choice is letting the security pros protect your network.
Five reasons to not DIY
The main reason to pass up DIY mitigation? Its limitations. Although tools and techniques of in-house DDoS mitigation are powerful, they can’t stop swift, massive, and sophisticated volumetric attacks. Remember, in on-premises DIY mitigation plans:
- Protection starts too late in the attack cycle. DIY protection methods are usually a reaction to the initial attack. By the time the IT security team starts working, much of the damage is done. This is especially relevant in DDoS attacks that include application-layer exploits.
- The ability to adjust configurations doesn’t always help. IT security pros can respond to an attack by adjusting configuration settings manually. However, this takes valuable time. Also, protection is good only for the same type of attack. This lack of flexibility becomes a problem in multi-vector exploits. When botmasters (human controllers of DDoS bots) change tactics in mid-attack, your protection loses its usefulness.
- Your network’s network bandwidth limits DIY protection efforts. Your DDoS protection is only as good as your bandwidth is large. DDoS attacks commonly measure many times more than the volume of enterprise network traffic.
- DIY protection can’t always distinguish malware and legitimate users. In-house, DDoS protection methods often involve static traffic rate limitations and IP blacklisting. When you use these relatively old-fashioned methods, legitimate users can be mistaken for malicious software. Being blocked from using your website is a quick way to lose customers.
- Prohibitive costs. For many companies wanting to upgrade their DDoS protection, this is the biggest problem of all. Purchasing, installing and deploying hardware appliances carry a hefty price tag that puts DIY protection beyond the budget of most organizations.
Don’t forget to protect your applications
Network users are discovering what IT security pros have known for a while. Volumetric attacks might be the familiar face of DDoS mayhem. In many cases, however, data and application security are also at risk.
That’s because DDoS attacks are often smokescreens to exploits that look for valuable data and information. In an application-layer DDoS attack, a botnet distracts the security team. While the security pros deal with the immediate problem, bots search for any information that can be sold on the Dark Web.
If you want to run your own DDoS protection methods, this is bad news. The security of applications that you run onsite is at risk. Given this expanded security scope, you would have to protect your apps by upgrading application-layer security measures. Experts recommend that to secure commercial applications, organizations must have their own remediation process, identity management methods, and infrastructure security procedures.
To run custom applications safely, you should adopt quite a few additional measures. These include application security testing, developer training, DevOps and DevSecOps practices, and maintaining an open source code inventory.
The ace up your sleeve—cloud-based mitigation services
The cloud is where you’ll find a powerful, cost-effective security option. Cloud-based, DDoS mitigation providers offer benefits that DIY methods lack.
- Broad DDoS protection. Cloud-based protection secures your infrastructure against attacks on your system’s network and application layers.
- No DDoS-related capital or operations costs. Mitigation service specialists offer DDoS protection as a managed service. There’s no need to invest in hardware or software. And, say good-bye to IT labor costs. Your IT staff doesn’t get involved in DDoS mitigation.
- No scalability problems. DDoS mitigation providers use large-scale infrastructures, with virtually unlimited bandwidth.
- No need to hire expensive talent. In-house DDoS protection solutions require IT pros with expensive, often hard-to-find knowledge and experience. The staffs of DDoS mitigation providers include the security and data specialists needed to keep DDoS attacks at bay.
- You spend less time and money. When you add up the costs of all required assets and resources, the conclusion is clear. You’ll spend far less time, effort, and budget when you engage off-premises, DDoS protection services.
These are the benefits that most DDoS mitigation services provide. However, advanced mitigation providers go several steps beyond this already high standard of performance. For example, automated defense methods built into DDoS response software eliminate the need for time-consuming human intervention. In fact, these capabilities reduce time to mitigation to mere seconds. (The current industry record is 10 seconds).
Isn’t it time to take advantage of this IT security firepower? With DDoS mitigation services at your back, you’ll never have to wince at another DDoS screamer headline again.