A Guide to Building Modern Approaches to DDoS Protection

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 in DDoS weapons. DDoS botnets have grown by 16 percent, and DDoS-for-hire services have surged by 20 percent from the last period, which 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 daily 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 a 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 the pandemic, these types remain prevalent as commonly used DDoS attack vectors. 

It’s not a new technique, but DDoS attacks are increasingly used as a smokescreen to hide other malicious attacks, such as 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 proactively 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 is 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 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 poorly configured devices 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.  

Response and Workflow Planning 

A well-defined incident response plan is essential. This plan should outline the overall workflow and steps 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, etc. Furthermore, ensure robust failover/ disaster recovery procedures and data backups to minimize downtime and data loss during an attack. 

The key is to rely on something other than your organization. It is crucial to have a partner and response team from your DDoS provider—a vendor or service provider—who can immediately 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 the precision and reliability of the DDoS mitigation: 

• Advanced mitigation technique: Different DDoS attacks require specific countermeasures to mitigate their impact. Apply appropriate countermeasures in an adaptive and efficient manner that doesn’t impact legitimate traffic and device performance.  
• Multi-layered protection: There is no silver bullet. Implement layered and adaptive protection mechanisms to mitigate zero-day attacks, including geo-based traffic policy, threat intel-based backlist (BL), and AI/ML-based protection. This could include advanced techniques such as baseline, examination of packet headers, or session-based behavioral tracking for encrypted DDoS attacks. 
• Automation and orchestration: Implement automated response mechanisms to quickly detect and mitigate DDoS attacks. Automation enables faster time-to-mitigation and effective DDoS protection workflow by reducing manual operation and human response time.

How A10 Can Help 

DDoS protection is an ongoing process. Implementing the strategies described above and staying vigilant 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 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: 

• A10 Defend Detector efficiently identifies abnormal traffic 
• A10 Defend Mitigator intelligently mitigates modern DDoS attacks using ML/AI-powered technique 
• A10 Defend Threat Control proactively provides customizable and actionable insights into DDoS threats and weapons  
• A10 Defend Orchestrator provides a centralized point of control for seamless and automated DDoS defense execution 

Takahiro Mitsuhata's article appears on the A10 blog.