Lately, DDoS attacks have been one of the most prevalent cyberattacks. Every website online is suffering through a vulnerability. The repercussions of attack last long years. The DDoS attacks are one of the much focused attacks with high profile hackers involved. Every now and then it is advised that you need to have a DDoS protection plan. So let’s dive deep into the whereabouts of it.

A Distributed Denial-of-Service attack or a DDoS attack is a mode of cyber-attack where the attacker or the hacker attempt with an intention to make an online service or network resource unavailable to its target audience.

The aim of the attack is to make the website unresponsive by directing a huge unmanageable traffic to the website. A sudden outburst of traffic onto the website often makes the website server crash and shows a ‘Page not found’ error.

Due to the illegitimate traffic, the genuine traffic cannot reach the website and there’s huge loss to the website and the organization to which the website belongs. For websites with sensitive data, like financial websites or the E-market websites, this becomes a huge problem as the attack could result in loss of credibility and hence customers.

When websites hosted on high-profile servers like that of Banks, e-payment gateways are targeted, multiple compromised systems crowd the bandwidth of the target system with traffic. And when the server is loaded with these zombie connections, it is no longer equipped to receive new connections.

Based on a recent survey by Arbor Networks, more than 2000 daily DDoS attacks are witnessed worldwide, and 1/3rd of all the downtime can be attributed to DDoS attacks.

In a layman's term, a DDoS attack is when window shoppers crowd a given shop thereby blocking the passageway for genuine shoppers to make an entry.

Realizing the seriousness of the attack, many anti-virus and cyber security agencies have come up with different DDoS prevention plans and mitigation ideas. Have a look at the few trending and effective DDoS protection practices suggested by the professionals:

•    Consistent monitoring:
This measure includes carrying out frequent scans on your network resources and network assets to identify the weak points and ensure that the vendor patches for operating systems and all network applications have been duly applied to prevent the risk of compromise by an attacker. Having increased traffic on the website is always overwhelming but you also need to be careful as a sudden surge may not always be a good news for you.

•    Inspect the traffic levels:
DDoS attacks are launched to increase the traffic levels mainly during busy months like Christmas or Halloween, or Black Friday, where the real traffic gets lost within the influx of the attack and the business is unable to distinguish the hidden traffic amongst the real ones.

•    Deploy a Content Delivery Network:
A Content Delivery Network is one of the best defenses against a DDoS attack as it acts as a regulator and diverts all the fake traffic launched as a part of the attack to a third party based cloud infrastructure thereby providing a cover for the network assets

•    Educate your customers by generating awareness:
Customer education and outreach are of paramount importance. A well-informed customer can be able to distinguish and minimize the harm caused unknowingly by running a DDoS malware.
The customer should be informed about how Cyber security best practices can be used to secure devices and transactions online.

•    Get a DDoS mitigation package:
An excellent DDoS mitigation package would offer services to mitigate the risk involved, particularly in case of emergencies. Depending on the comprehensiveness and functionality involved you can select from multiple packages available in the market depending on the provider's contract and the cost to be incurred.

You can always hire an agency for a holistic approach for security, but make sure the plan they pitch for has a special DDoS attack protection strategy.

In today's digital age, as most businesses are making a shift to the digital-based model of doing business, it becomes essential for a company to have the right tools and measures in place to safeguard its data and resources. To defend one's network resources from a distributed denial of service attack, organizations need to have in place highly effective security solutions that protect their brand image and do not harm their revenues. This calls for around-the-clock monitoring, an adequate mitigation plan in place along with a response plan in case of an attack.

As online business increases and reaches new heights, the probability and occurrences of such attacks are also on the rise. As a smart business organization, the best course of action would be to remain updated continuously and upgrade to the latest and best that technology has to offer to safeguard your business perimeters and frontiers. Self-monitoring concerning vigilance and services provided by cyber security firms can go a long way in helping your business run smoothly without falling prey to any such tactics and attacks.