DDoS Detection, Mitigation, Orchestration, and Threat Intelligence
Consolidated Security & CGNAT
TLS/SSL Inspection
Web Application Firewall
Application Security & Load Balancing
Analytics & Management
CGNAT & IPv6 Migration
The digital world thrives on constant connectivity, making websites and online services the cornerstones of countless businesses. But these crucial platforms are constantly under siege by malicious actors. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, where attackers overwhelm an online service infrastructure with a flood of traffic, pose a significant threat, causing service disruption and downtime which results in financial losses and reputational damage. This blog delves into the evolving DDoS landscape and equips you with the knowledge to fortify your defenses.
Understanding the Modern Landscape
While massive volumetric attacks often grab headlines, the DDoS threat landscape has become far more multi-faceted. Recent reports from Microsoft and A10 Networks highlight a concerning rise of DDoS weapons. DDoS botnets have grown by 16 percent and DDoS-for-hire services have surged by 20 percent from last period. This translates to the DDoS attack frequency increase – attacks tend to be shorter, lasting less than five minutes, and at lower overall volume but occur more frequently with sharper bursts of intensity. Microsoft reported combatting an average of 1,700 DDoS attacks per day in 2023 – an 18 percent jump from 2022.
Another interesting trend is the shift in attack vectors. In 2023, TCP-based attacks surged to 59 percent (up from 45 percent in 2022), likely due to the rising adoption of DDoS-for-hire tools. Remember the record-breaking HTTP/2 rapid reset DDoS attack last October? That’s a prime example of the TCP-based attack leveraging DDoS botnets. Though UDP amplification and flood attacks have been dominant in the past few years, especially against the booming gaming industry during pandemic, these types remain prevalent as commonly used DDoS attack vectors.
It’s not a new technique but DDoS attacks are ever-increasingly used as a smokescreen to hide other malicious attacks like hacking and data breaches. Attackers may leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to orchestrate complex, multi-vector assaults that combine different attack types and automation for maximum impact.
By understanding these modern trends, organizations can take proactive steps to protect themselves from sophisticated DDoS attacks and the hidden threats they may conceal.
Building Your DDoS Defense
Combatting modern DDoS attacks requires a comprehensive strategy. Here are some fundamentals to build your defenses:
Network Hardening
The first line of defense lies in reducing your attack surface. Close unused ports on servers or firewalls, minimizing potential entry points for attackers. Additionally, leverage built-in DDoS protection features on the existing firewall, ADC and/or other network devices to filter suspicious traffic patterns, implement rate-limiting and block invalid packets that are headed toward your applications and services.
Threat Intelligence and Monitoring
Proactive defense is key for emerging threats. Continuously monitor your network traffic with robust traffic analysis tools to identify anomalies and suspicious patterns that might indicate a DDoS attack is on the horizon or identify badly configured devices that are at-risk of being used in a DDoS attack. Also, stay informed about the latest DDoS trends and tactics from threat intelligence services, which can provide ‘blocklists’ that can be ingested by your firewall, SIEM, or other network devices to block traffic from malicious IPs.
Dedicated DDoS Mitigation
Consider deploying a dedicated DDoS protection solution or service, as actual DDoS defense requires high packet processing performance and bandwidth capacity, along with sophisticated mitigation techniques to precisely block attacks without affecting legitimate user traffic.
For those who have smaller data centers or networks to protect, hybrid DDoS protection would be ideal. It consists of a cloud DDoS scrubbing service and an inline customer premise equipment (CPE) device at your network edge, which will provide always-on effective mitigation against both network- and application-layer attacks and can redirect traffic to the scrubbing service in case the traffic statutes the uplink internet connection.
Response and Workflow Planning
A well-defined incident response plan is essential. This plan should outline the overall workflow and steps to take against a DDoS attack, including an escalation process with role and responsibility, mitigation operation process, service monitoring and status check, recovery procedure, log collection, incident reports and so on. Furthermore, ensure that robust failover/ disaster recovery procedures and data backups are in place to minimize downtime and data loss during an attack.
The key is to not rely solely on your organization. It is crucial to have a partner and response team from your DDoS provider—be it a vendor or service provider—who can be available immediately to assist during an incoming DDoS attack. Additionally, it is beneficial if the DDoS mitigation solution you have implemented includes features like an automated escalation workflow that can adapt in real-time when an attack begins or is in progress.
Beyond the Basics: Adaptive and Multi-layered Defense Approach
Modern DDoS protection goes beyond these core strategies and requires careful consideration when it comes to precision and reliability of the DDoS mitigation:
How A10 Can Help
DDoS protection is an ongoing process. By implementing these DDoS protection strategies described above and staying vigilant, you can significantly fortify your defenses and ensure your online service remains resilient.
A10 Defend provides a holistic DDoS protection solution that is scalable, economical, precise, and intelligent to realize a modern DDoS protection and help customers ensure optimal user and subscriber experiences. Used by top service providers, enterprise, cloud, and online gaming companies, the A10 Defend suite consists of four major components:
