Written By: Oplink.net | Last Updated: September 2022
DDoS mitigation is the process of protecting a site from DDoS attacks. Such attacks aim to overwhelm a server by flooding it with malicious traffic. Unfortunately, DDoS attacks are currently on the rise, so businesses are being advised to protect their systems with robust DDoS mitigation technology.
Read on to find out more about how DDoS mitigation works, to learn how you can protect your site from this ever-growing threat.
What is DDoS Mitigation?
DDoS mitigation is a way of protecting a system from the threat of DDoS attacks.
In DDoS mitigation, any surges in network traffic can be quickly blocked and absorbed, preventing the malicious traffic from affecting the system. Importantly, genuine traffic can still access the site throughout, so customers won’t notice a difference in the service they’re offered.
There are numerous different strategies and technologies that are widely used in DDoS mitigation. Primarily, they are all designed to ensure that resources are still available even if a system comes under attack.
DDoS mitigation techniques aim to ensure that companies are able to respond quickly to such attacks, limiting the damage that they can cause.
DDoS Mitigation: How Does it Work?
DDoS mitigation rapidly reduces the risk of DDoS attacks, by enabling companies to deliver a fast and effective response. It works in stages, with the most effective mitigation strategies racing through these steps so quickly that no human could ever notice.
This is how DDoS mitigation works in practice.
Stage 1: Detection
The first step of mitigation is of course detecting the threat. Websites need to be able to decide whether a significant increase in traffic is genuine or not. This is done through examination of IP addresses and reputation, paired with information on previous attack patterns and customer data.
Stage 2: Response
If an attack is detected, the network quickly responds by absorbing traffic. This limits the effect of a spike in malicious incoming traffic. Networks can start to mitigate any disruption caused by the attack using filtration processes such as memcached or NTP amplification.
Stage 3: Routing
Next, the network will start to reroute traffic. This allows the system to break up a huge volume of traffic into smaller groups, which can be managed far more easily. As a result, there’s no risk of any denial-of-service.
Stage 4: Adaptation
Over time, systems will learn from past events and improve mitigation strategies even further. This is known as adaptation. It simply means that systems have adapted to the threats around them. They are therefore able to recognise and deal with malicious traffic surges faster and more easily every time.
Why is DDoS Mitigation So Crucial?
DDos mitigation strategies are growing in importance every day. Unfortunately, the risk of a system being taken down by a DDoS attack is constantly rising, and these attacks are becoming ever more complex and difficult to deal with.
Recent years have seen a huge rise in the frequency of DDoS attacks. From the start of 2020 to 2021, we saw a rise of 75% in DDoS attacks. And this trend shows no sign of slowing down.
With many businesses becoming increasingly reliant on online systems to manage almost all of their processes, the damage that DDoS attacks can do is enormous. Even a small amount of downtime can mean huge losses to a company, particularly if an attack occurs during a busy period.
Well executed DDoS mitigation strategies can mean the difference between lengthy downtime resulting in a massive loss in income, and a small hiccough that’s dealt with so quickly customers aren’t even aware of it.
What is a DDoS Mitigation Service?
A DDoS mitigation service provides critical security to companies looking to protect themselves from the threat of DDoS attacks. A great DDoS mitigation service will be able to strengthen defences and significantly reduce the risk of a successful DDoS attack.
At Oplink.net, we provide DDoS mitigation services to businesses of all sizes. Our mitigation services are designed with specific business needs in mind, and tailored to the requirements of our customers. Protection is fully automated, providing complete peace of mind no matter what.
Our team deployed a Corero Smartwall to provide DDoS attack protection to our customers back in 2020. We chose this method as it delivers the ultimate in protection, with layer 3 to layer 7 DDoS mitigation in seconds.
The Corero Smartwall real-time packet inspection and mitigation solution protects against attacks of up to 100 Gbps. This deployment is inline to the front edge of our uplink, which minimises latency and provides the flexibility to defend against attacks in real time. Security is therefore maximised. This defence system is always on, it’s always fast and it’s always accurate.
Oplink.net protects against large network-based DDoS attacks including floods and reflective amplified spoof attacks, as well as attacks that are typically too small to be detected by out of band solutions. To find out more about our DDoS mitigation options take a look at our complete guide to DDoS mitigation services.
Protect Your Business From DDoS Attacks
If you’d like to find out more about how you can protect your business from DDoS attacks, get in touch with our team. We’re here to talk you through the available options, to help you find a defence strategy that works for your business – and your budget.
Contact us to learn more about DDoS mitigation options from Oplink.net.