On Christmas Day, 2014 the Playstation Network and X-Box live were brought down by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Around the world, people receiving new games and video game systems found themselves unable to use their gifts because the network servers were inaccessible.
A group called The Lizard Squad claimed responsibility on Twitter, and claimed that they would stop the attack if their message was re-tweeted 2500 times.
Think about that for a moment, they brought down two gaming networks, for re-tweets.
So, some kids couldn’t play their games on Christmas, what does that have to do with your business?
DDoS attacks are becoming more and more common. In a DDOS attack a group of infected computers, called a Botnet, are set to flood a target server or network with nuisance traffic. The result is an overload of requests that overwhelm the target, resulting in a denial of legitimate requests. Various groups perform these attacks for various reasons – political protests, to gain notoriety, or to damage a company that they don’t like.
How do you protect your business?
We work with quite a few companies that offer DDoS Mitigation services, either on an as needed basis, or monthly. AT&T for example, offers a one time service that will stop a DDoS attack that is currently happening. They charge a one time cost of $60,000. That’s a lot of money. A better option would be a DDOS service that you pay for monthly. All of your traffic passes through specialized equipment in your carrier’s network. After a learning period, the equipment can then recognize when a DDoS attack is happening and reject the harmful traffic before it ever reaches you, while still allowing legitimate traffic through to your business.
How much would a DDoS attack cost your business, in mitigation, reputation, and customer satisfaction?
If you would like to learn more please call or e-mail us.
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