Forward Thinking
Stop the Mayhem with DDoS Protection
Posted: Friday, February 24, 2012
Posted in: Disaster Recovery | Network Management | Managed IT Services
Keywords: DDoS | Anonymous | Hackers | Global blackout
Nothing strikes fear into an IT department like the phrase "We've been hacked".
The global "Anonymous" Movement has been stepping up their coordinated hacking attacks.
Who is Anonymous? They appear to be a very loosely organized group of hackers; or, in their words, a "team of mayhem". Within the past few weeks they have been able to take down the websites of the NASDAQ, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the FTC, and the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
These attacks aren't new. You might remember the attacks of 2000 on eBay, CNN and others, but the frequency is on the rise: a 2000% increase in just the past three years.
More important than WHO they are taking down, is HOW. Anonymous uses a method called DDoS, short for Distributed Denial of Service. In a nutshell, they flood a server connected to the internet with messages until it finally crashes under the load.
Anonymous isn't the only one engaging in DDoS attacks. Criminal gangs operating out of Eastern Europe have been targeting banks with DDoS attacks since at least 2008.
So doesn't DDoS protection seem like a no-brainer?
If that's so, then why are so many companies still vulnerable to attack? According to a recent Forbes article, 70% of IT security personnel have trouble getting higher-ups to listen to them.
That is what Anonymous and other hackers are counting on.
When Anonymous posted their plans for the March 31st "Operation Global Blackout", they stated "We know you won't listen. We know you won't change".
But what if we do listen? What if our servers have 24/7 monitoring monitoring and protection, paired with emergency response by security experts if a spike or flood does go down? (Does this sound like any company you know of?)
That's right, on March 31st, Anonymous is going to try black out the internet. Kind of makes DDoS protection seem much more important, doesn't it?
If you would like to learn more about nFrame's DDoS protection capabilities, use the form on this page to contact one of our solutions experts.
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