DDoS Attacks: Prevention, Mitigation, and Recovery

Experiencing internet disruptions and downtime may not be a big deal. However, when excessive internet traffic causes these issues, cybercriminals may be behind it. 

Flooding the internet server with excess traffic is a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. 

Considering that today everything is digitalized, DDoS attacks have been more frequent. Amazon, for instance, suffered a financial setback of $34 million due to one system outage in 2021. 

Likewise, Meta endured a loss of approximately $100M because of a Facebook outage the same year.

Attacks like these not only undermine business but also damage an organization’s reputation. Let’s further understand what these attacks are and what organizations can do to prevent them.

What Is a DDoS Attack?

DDoS is a cyber attack involving multiple electronic means known as botnets to manipulate, destroy, or gain access to a computer system directing a large volume of internet traffic.

The goal of such attacks is to exhaust the target’s resources— such as CPU, bandwidth, website operations, etc. Attacks can vary in complexity, given the threat actor behind them. 

Threat actors can include, but are not limited to, individual hackers, criminal groups, and foreign state actors. They send massive amounts of traffic to the target to disrupt access for legitimate users.

The time span of these attacks can also vary from days to weeks, inflicting serious harm to businesses and organizations.

DDoS can be understood by considering an example of a local drive-thru, which works strategically and is often filled with rushed customers asking for quick service.

Now imagine if someone pulls a prank and sends in a large group of cars with long orders just to cancel their orders at the last moment. This will disrupt the pace of business for the restaurant, and the customers who were there to get their food quickly will be deprived of it.

How Can We Prevent DDoS Attacks?

Prevention involves a few crucial steps: first, you must understand your threat landscape, which includes the types of attacks one might face and their impact on the business.

Leveraging specialized DDoS protection services can also be beneficial because they mitigate these attacks before they disrupt one network.

Further, implementing network redundancy also ensures that if one part of your system is targeted, others can function easily. Think of it this way: if there is road blockage from one area, it can be ensured that the alternate routes are unaffected.

1. Rate Limiting and Traffic Shaping

One way to mitigate DDoS attacks is to Rate Limit the number of requests a survey can receive from a single IP address. 

Traffic shaping is a widely used strategy that prioritizes authentic requests over malicious ones. By establishing such thresholds, we can ensure seamless browsing for our target audience.

2. Firewalls and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPs)

Other good examples of protection against DDoS are Firewalls and IPS. Firewalls act as a barrier between external traffic and internal networks.

As such, it prevents traffic from entering and disrupting the networks through application-layer filtering and rate-limiting features.

On the other hand, IPS provides protection and threat detection on a more advanced level. It mitigates threats through anomaly detection, behavioral analysis, and signature-based detection.

While a firewall acts as an external barrier, IPS helps eliminate threats internally. For optimal protection, it is essential to use both Firewall and IPS together.

3. Regular Security Audits and Updates

Regular security audits and updates on your systems will ensure the identification of the vulnerabilities that could be exploited. For better protection and reduction of potential attacks, one should ensure the latest security patches on all software and hardware.

4. DDoS Protection Services

DDoS protection services offered by third-party vendors can also detect and mitigate attacks before they reach a business. These services often provide real-time monitoring and automatic response mechanisms to handle large-scale attacks.

Tools to Prevent DDOS Attacks

Along with the precautions to your systems, you can take advantage of using these tools to prevent DDOS attacks. Let’s explore some free and paid tools that can help you stay ahead of DDOS attacks. 

Free Tools

Cloudflare
Cloudflare offers a free plan that helps protect against DDoS attacks. It works by standing between your website and the internet, filtering out bad traffic and letting only the good traffic through. This makes it harder for attackers to overload your site.

Here’s how to set it up for free!

IPtables
IPtables is a free tool available on Linux systems. It allows you to set up rules to control the traffic coming to your server. You can block certain IP addresses or limit the amount of traffic coming from specific sources.

Here’s how to set it up for free!

BitNinja

BitNinja is another free tool that offers basic DDoS protection. It provides a firewall that helps to filter out harmful traffic and can protect multiple servers at once. The free version of BitNinja is great for small websites or personal projects.

Here’s how to set it up for free. 

Paid Tools

Akamai
Akamai is a well-known paid service that offers advanced DDoS protection. It uses a large network of servers to detect and block DDoS attacks before they reach your website. Akamai is suitable for businesses that need strong protection and are willing to pay for it.

How to set up:
Setting up Akamai involves subscribing to one of their plans and configuring your website’s DNS settings to point to Akamai’s servers. You will need to follow the instructions provided by Akamai to ensure that your site is fully protected.

Imperva
Imperva provides another paid option for DDoS protection. It uses machine learning to understand what normal traffic looks like for your website and can quickly identify and block abnormal traffic that might be a DDoS attack. Imperva is great for businesses looking for a powerful and customizable solution.

How to set up:
To set up Imperva, you need to sign up for a plan on their website. Then, follow their setup guide to configure your website’s DNS and security settings. Imperva provides detailed instructions and support to help you get started.

AWS Shield
AWS Shield is a paid DDoS protection service from Amazon Web Services (AWS). It offers two levels of protection: AWS Shield Standard, which is free for all AWS users, and AWS Shield Advanced, which provides more robust protection for an extra fee. AWS Shield is ideal for businesses already using AWS for their website or application.

How to set up:
To use AWS Shield, you need an AWS account. After logging in, you can enable AWS Shield Standard or subscribe to AWS Shield Advanced in the AWS Management Console. AWS provides documentation and support to help configure Shield to protect your resources.

How Can We Mitigate DDoS Attacks?

Numerous steps can help organizations mitigate DDoS attacks. Here are some suggestions. 

Traffic Analysis, Filtering and Deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFS)

It is important to differentiate between legitimate and malicious traffic during an attack. 

Filtering techniques such as challenge-response tests (CAPTCHAs) or IP reputation checks can help with such identification, allowing only legitimate users to access the service.

Web Application Firewall can also help filter out HTTP/HTTPS, which blocks malicious requests. These work against application-layer attacks, and to enhance their effectiveness, one can configure WAFs with relevant rules and thresholds. 

Scaling Resources

On-demand scaling capabilities are often offered by cloud-based services. A temporary increase of resources, in the case of an attack, can handle the additional load. 

To mitigate the impact of an attack, this approach can be cost-effective without any significant long-term investment.

Engaging with ISPs and Hosting Providers

During an attack, one must be in contact with their Internet Service Provider (ISP) and hosting providers. They can offer support by providing traffic filtering and rerouting. It is always better to establish communication channels beforehand for a quicker response and easy mitigation.

How Does One Recover After a DDoS Attack?

Let’s learn how to recover from a DDoS attack. 

Post-Attack Analysis

First and foremost, a post-attack analysis should be conducted. This will identify the impact of the attack on the system, identify any exploitations, and evaluate the effectiveness of your response measures. This further helps improve security strategies and avoid such incidents.

Restoring Services and Communication

The second step in recovery should be restoring services to normal operations. For that, one should openly communicate with stakeholders, customers, and employees about the disruption and have complete transparency. 

This can then help manage expectations and maintain the trust of the people associated with the business. 

Post-Attack Review and Security Enhancement

After the attack, one should review and update their incident response plan based on the attack’s insight. Address the gaps identified from the attack and work on strengthening the response strategy. 

Next, one should work on enhancing security in the organization. Implementing necessary upgrades–such as advanced DDoS protection services or improved traffic monitoring tools–helps.

Continuing improvements will lead to adaptation to emerging threats, which will be beneficial for maintaining long-term security.

Final Thoughts 

DDoS attacks are a constant threat in the digital world, but they don’t have to cripple your operations. You can reduce their impact with proactive prevention, effective mitigation strategies, and a solid recovery plan.

As a business, consider viewing each attack as an opportunity to learn. Thoroughly analyzing these incidents can help you improve your security measures and strengthen your defenses.

This ongoing vigilance will likely protect your business from future threats and enhance its overall resilience.