FWaaS Prevents DDoS Attacks

As well all know in the digital world and especially in business, DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are vice that is very hard to tackle with. For businesses, a single one of these attacks can all but shut down their online presence… leading to some very serious financial and reputational damage. Though firewalls are already an essential part of network security, the explosion of Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) has exploded further and provide much-needed protections that can prevent many types DDoS attacks. In this blog you will learn first hand experiences of Ddos attack and how through FWaaS, your business is safeguarded against such attacks that eventually enhance the operational efficiency.

Understanding DDoS Attacks

What is a DDoS attackA distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack attempts to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. These sources are normally a botnet(a network of PCs controlled by the assailant).

Key Objectives of DDoS Attacks

• Resource Exhaustion: Exploiting the system resources such as CPU, memory and bandwidth.
• Service Disruption: Rendering the service unavailable to legitimate users.
• Financial: Leading to financial losses in the form of downtime and restoring processes.
• Reputational Harm: Affecting the credibility and trust your customers have in you.

Type of DDoS Attacks

1. Volume-based attacks – These try to consume the bandwidth of your network or service
2. Protocol Attacks exploit vulnerabilities in protocols and consume the resources of server or intermediate communication equipment.
3. Application Layer Attacks – These focus on web application layer to make a denial of service attack, this type’s attacks are also difficult detect and mitigation.

FWaaS DDoS Protection Features

Using this, organizations can use the cloud and local firewall in line with their FWaaS product to effectively combat DDoS attacks. Some features that allow FWaaS to be an effective solution are listed below:

Scalability and Elasticity

Accessible via the cloud, FWaaS can scale as traffic increases (whether it be organic or malicious.) This flexibility secures availability of services even under high volumes of DDoS by a potential attacker.

Global Traffic Splitting

This distribution of traffic across all global data centers allows FWaaS to survive attacks, leveraging the aggregate bandwidth and resources for the entire cloud network. This reduces any of the locations as a victim.

Intelligent Traffic Filtering

The FWaaS uses approval as well as filtration innovations. It leverages machine learning algorithms to learn new attack types and dynamically adjust its filtering rules.

Real-Time Monitoring and Analytics

Real-time analytics and deep monitoring allows an automated method to detect irregular traffic behaviors. FWaaS platforms alert and monitor allow the snooper to know in real-time, so that s/he can act as soon as possible for mitigation.

Integrated WAF (Web Application Firewall)

Most FWaaS solutions also include built-in Web Application Firewalls (WAF), a potential for additional security at the application level. That is especially useful with respect to application layer attacks that a traditional firewall will not even notice.

Case Studies

E-commerce Company → Massive DDoS Attack Reed Case Study

An African ecommerce saw its site lurching at a crawl as it got bombarded by>800 Gbps to 1.2 Tbps traffic attack when demand for online shopping spiked during the Thanksgiving Black Friday and Christmas holidays because of COVID-19 pandemic orders sent many indoors across cities, thereby triggering Volumetric DDosMI attacks aimed on US Cloudflare servers in Chicago last month that targeted this market client’s website. A FWaaS solution helped the company dynamically increase its defenses. Both the intelligent traffic filtering and global distribution capabilities worked in unison to absorb or mitigate most of the attack, which meant nothing was taken offline.

Financial Institution Protocol Attack Countermeasures

A leading financial services organization fell victim to a high-level protocol attack that exploited its network stack weaknesses. A FWaaS solution had been previously deployed at the institution and it provided real-time data monitoring & analytics. The detection of abnormal traffic patterns occurred at an early stage, with protocol-specific filtering rules put into place trickling malicious activity and rescuing sensitive financial data.

SaaS Provider Prevents Application Layer Attacks

A SaaS provider was experiencing frequent application layer attacks that sought to render their service unusable by flooding its web applications. This then lead the provider to replace this with a FWaaS solution including WAF. By deploying these two methods in parallel, they were able to achieve a more reliable sort of security thanks to the ability of identifying and responding against requests at an application level as malicious while maintaining service availability for clients.

Implementation Tips

Assess Your Requirements

Understand what your security needs are before choosing one of the different FWaaS offerings. Assess the services you provide, vulnerabilities present and traffic types that are of interest to differentiate what classifiable data can propagate through.

Selecting the Right FWaaS Provider

Select a FWaaS provider with proven DDoS mitigation capabilities. Seek features such as global traffic distribution, advanced filtering and built-in WAF capabilities. Look for a vendor that can provide appropriate rental models based on your business requirements.

Merge With Preexisting Security Measures

Your existing network security framework should be complemented by FWaaS. Integration with other security tools (IDS, endpoint security and VPNs) needs to be seamless.

Update and Test Your Security Defenses

Security is something that has an ongoing attack process. Update your FWaaS settings often and testing them through DDoS attacks on a regular basis to check, how well are they configured for resistance. Regular monitoring and adjustments are necessary for maintaining secure security.

Utilize Managed Service Expertise

For those that find dealing with FWaaS on their own a little intimidating, do not fret as this is one of the services offered by managed security service providers (MSSPs). They are able to address the intricacies of implementation, management as well as having safeguarded and managing that for you whilst delivering other aspects which will help your business gain competitive advantage.

Monitor and Analyze

You need to keep a constant check for spotting and responding if you see any possible DDoS attacks happening. Leverage the analytics capability of your FWaaS to gain more insights into traffic patterns, detect anomalies and refine security rules.

Educate Your Team

Keep your IT staff up-to-date in supporting the features, and see to that it covers all functionalities offered by this solution you have chosen for FWaaS capabilities. Having regular training sessions and keeping everyone-international salespeople, account managers, customer serviceupto-date on the new developments will keep them alert as well.

Conclusion

DDoS attacks are a main concern for most businesses across all sizes, but with Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) companies can have an effective battle keep away from these perils. When it comes to best-fit solutions, with features such as scalability, global traffic distribution, intelligent filtering and real-time analytics opted in the solution part – FWaaS emerges as a strong solution against DDoS attacks. Properly selecting the right FWaaS provider, complementing it with existing security controls and processes, as well as enhancing its protection through ongoing monitoring or updates will result in business continuity and safeguard valuable assets.

Businesses that would like to rent firewalls, servers and routers should investigate how FWaaS will provide them with a scalable and flexible service customised for their security needs in order to stay one step ahead of cyber threats.

It has never been more important to safeguard your digital assets and FWaaS can be a cornerstone in your cybersecurity arsenal. Adopt next-gen firewall protection and protect your business from the ever changing face of cyber threats.