How to Prevent DDoS Attacks Best Practices (10 Ways to Stop)
How to Prevent DDoS Attacks Best Practices (10 Ways to Stop). Are you concerned about the threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on your organization’s network? Well, the first three moths of 2023 saw a 300% increase in DDoS attacks compared to the previous year. In this blog post, we go over 10 rock-solid strategies to help safeguard your network infrastructure.
What is a DDoS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a non-intrusive attack meant to take down a website or app by flooding it with fake traffic. The goal? To incapacitate your website or service, leaving it crippled and useless to your intended audience.
The consequences of a successful DDoS attack are catastrophic. Not only does it disrupt your operations, it tarnishes the reputation of your organization and compromise data security.
How to Prevent DDoS Attacks Best Practices
Alright, let’s dive into the measures you should take to prevent DDoS attacks:
1.) Maintain High Levels of Network Security
To safeguard against DDoS attacks, you must maintain high levels of network security. You do this by implementing a multi-layered defense strategy that includes firewalls, Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS), and access control measures.
Firewalls act as gatekeepers, meticulously examining incoming and outgoing traffic to guarantee that only authorized connections go through. Additionally, IDPS play a crucial role in actively monitoring and preventing suspicious activities on your network. To strengthen your defense further, complement these measures with robust access control practices, including strong authentication and strict permission controls. By combining these strategies, you create multiple layers of protection, effectively safeguarding your network against potential DDoS attacks.
2.) Constant Traffic Monitoring and Analysis
By continuously monitoring your network traffic with traffic monitoring tools like Nagios, you establish a baseline for your network’s normal behaviour. You are then able to quickly detect and investigate any deviations from this baseline, enabling you to respond promptly to potential security breaches.
And that’s not all. Traffic monitoring tools provide real time alerts, notifying you whenever they detect suspicious activity. With this early warning system at your disposal, you take proactive measures to mitigate the impact of a potential attack.
3.) Increase Your Network's Bandwidth
To mitigate the impact of a DDoS attack, focus on having a robust network infrastructure with sufficient bandwidth. This enables your network to handle more traffic than normal. Ideally, you should target 2 to 5 times your anticipated baseline. As a result, your server effectively thwarts the attacker’s attempts to overwhelm your resources by absorbing the excess load.
4.) Use DDoS Protection Services
DDoS protection services are cybersecurity solutions designed to fend off DDoS attacks. When procuring these services, you opt for an on-premises hardware appliance, a cloud based service, or a hybrid solution that combines both approaches. It’s all about finding what suits you best.
DDoS protection services are always on the lookout, detecting and thwarting DDoS attacks in real time. They employ advanced traffic analysis and filtering techniques to identify and divert malicious traffic. The moment a malicious actor tries to breach your defences, these services quickly divert the traffic away from your critical systems. As a result, your digital assets withstand the onslaught of malicious traffic.
5.) Come Up with an Incident Response Plan
A DDoS incident response plan is a pre defined set of actions that you follow to effectively respond to DDoS attacks. With a well prepared plan, you minimize downtime and ensure the continuity of critical services in the event of an attack. But that’s not all – this plan also plays a crucial role in enhancing your organization’s resilience against future attacks. You see, by learning from past incidents, you strengthen your organization’s defences and stay a step ahead of potential threats.
6.) Implement Server Redundancy
Server redundancy refers to having multiple servers deployed to serve the same application or website. To nip DDoS attacks in the bud, consider hosting your servers at different data centers and colocation facilities in various regions. By doing so, you avoid any network bottlenecks or single points of failure. As a result, it becomes harder for attackers to bring you down.
If an attacker succeeds in attacking one of your servers, traffic is routed to the remaining servers until the targeted system is back online. In essence, server redundancy is like having your own league of superheroes, always ready to save the day.
7.) Understand the Warning Signs
Understanding the warning signs of DDoS attacks is key to securing your application or website. So, if you’re experiencing any of these telltale signs, it’s time to get vigilant.
- A sudden flood of requests hitting a specific endpoint or page.
- An unusual surge of traffic coming from a single IP or range of IPs.
- Spikes in traffic that pop up at irregular intervals or weird time frames.
- Problems accessing your website.
- Files loading at a snail’s pace or not loading at all.
- A flurry of traffic all coming from a single device type, geolocation, or a specific web browser version.
8.) Deploy to the Cloud
Hosting your application or service in the cloud offers distinct advantages due to the cloud’s superior scalability and capacity. Unlike on-premises solutions, cloud based services easily scale up and handle even massive volumetric DDoS attacks without being constrained by hardware limitations.
By partnering with a reliable cloud vendor, you leverage their advanced cybersecurity capabilities, high bandwidth, and network redundancy. You have a powerful ally by your side, bolstering your overall security posture and ensuring your services remain uninterrupted, even when faced with relentless DDoS threats.
9.) Implement Rate Limiting
Rate limiting is a powerful tool used to safeguard against DDoS attacks by controlling the flow of traffic directed at a network or server. Essentially, it’s like having a traffic cop at your system’s doorstep, keeping a close eye on the flow of traffic. You get to set a cap on the number of requests or connections allowed within a specific period of time. Once this limit is reached, any excess traffic is either dropped or delayed. Rate limiting is applied at various levels, like network, application, or DNS layers.
10.) Conduct Regular Security Audits and Updates
Regular security audits and updates are critical in strengthening your organization’s resilience against DDoS attacks. Security audits help identify vulnerabilities in the network, servers, and applications. By conducting them periodically, you proactively detect and address security gaps before they become opportunities for DDoS attacks.
How to Prevent DDoS Attacks Best Practices Conclusion
In conclusion, to prevent DDoS attacks effectively, you need to adopt a comprehensive and dynamic approach, considering the ever-evolving nature of these threats. Simply increasing network bandwidth or relying on traditional firewalls won’t be enough to ward off DDoS attacks, as attackers now employ sophisticated methods that target different layers of your network.
To counter these challenges, you must implement multi layered DDoS protection solutions that are scalable, resilient, and equipped with advanced traffic monitoring capabilities. It’s essential to proactively detect business logic flaws and manage vulnerabilities to stay ahead of the attackers.
As technology continues to evolve, so will DDoS attack methods. Therefore, staying informed about emerging threats and fostering collaboration with industry peers is crucial for enhancing our collective ability to combat DDoS attacks effectively. By implementing these best practices and maintaining a vigilant security stance, you significantly bolster your defences against DDoS attacks and ensure uninterrupted availability of your online services for legitimate users.
