DDoS mitigation best practices

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks come in several forms, each designed to exploit different vulnerabilities in a target’s network infrastructure and services. Understanding these attack types, how to prevent them, and how to mitigate them quickly and effectively, should be part of any good security program. 

Organizations can implement the following set of DDoS mitigation best practices across their organization to help prevent and resolve the threats and impacts of DDoS attacks. 

Why you need a DDoS Mitigation Strategy

The consequences of DDoS can be devastating without adequate security measures and strategies in place. Without a robust DDoS mitigation strategy, a business has to contend with the following realities: 

•  Every minute of downtime means lost earnings from customers who cannot purchase products or access services on a company’s site. Prolonged or repeated attacks add to massive costs that damage your bottom line.

• Hindered normal business operations: Operational delays, canceled orders, and stalled projects harm productivity and satisfaction. When certain services are unavailable during an attack, it becomes challenging to run your business.

• Reputational damage.

• Customer dissatisfaction: Customers expect consistent and reliable digital experiences. A DDoS attack resulting in website downtime reflects poorly on your brand. It may cause them to lose trust in your business and switch to competitors. 

• Increased security risks.

• Increased vulnerability exposure: When attacks overwhelm your existing security program, it can expose additional vulnerabilities that hackers can further exploit. This elevates risks of data theft or network infiltration even after the DDoS ends. 

• Exposure of sensitive customer data..

What types of DDoS attacks are there? 

Before we get into mitigation best strategies, it’s important to better understand the different types of DDoS attacks.

1. Volumetric Attacks

Volumetric attacks aim to consume a network's bandwidth resources in order to cause disruption. Attackers generate high volumes of junk traffic to flood links and exhaust bandwidth capacity. Common examples of this approach include UDP floods, which bombard targeted systems with UDP packets, and ICMP floods, which do the same using ICMP ping requests. 

2. Protocol Attacks

Protocol attacks aim to exploit weaknesses in specific network protocols rather than relying on high traffic volume. A common protocol attack is a SYN flood, where attackers send multiple SYN requests to open connections but never finalize the handshake process. This causes half-open connections to pile up, eating away at available resources. Another example is the Ping of Death attack, which sends fragmented or oversized ICMP packets to crash systems.

3. Application Layer Attacks

Application layer attacks target particular services and software vulnerabilities. Examples include HTTP floods and Slowloris attacks. HTTP flood attacks bombard specific ports or URLs with overwhelming requests. Slowloris attacks tie up resources by opening many connections and keeping them open as long as possible but sending minimal data.

What are DDoS mitigation best practices?

It is important to keep security tight in order to prevent DDoS attacks. Here are some common best practices that help reduce the risk of DDoS attacks and keep your company prepared. 

• Know the Signs: Understand the top 4 signs of a DDoS Attack

Top signs typically include unusually slow network performance, unavailability of specific websites or services, a surge in random traffic from a single IP or geographic region, and server crashes or system shutdowns. Let’s take a look at how you can easily recognize a DDoS attack in more detail. 

1. Slow Network Performance

If you suddenly experience unusually slow network speeds both on internal systems and when accessing external websites and services, this could mean a DDoS attack is saturating your bandwidth. Attacks aim to overwhelm available internet pipes, so performance will lag across your entire network footprint.

2. Website Unavailability

One of the common goals of a DDoS attack is to force websites offline. If your business's main site or internal tools become inaccessible or respond very slowly, it's a clear sign you may be under assault. Having customers or your workforce unable to load pages is a telltale indicator.

3. Increased Traffic from Specific IPs

Your network monitoring should be configured to track traffic patterns and volumes. A rise in traffic originating from specific IP addresses, especially short bursts that don't align with normal usage, could indicate an attack in progress. 

4. Inexplicable Outages

Unexplained frequent or prolonged periods of downtime related to your online presence or internal systems may also suggest that an advanced attacker is overrunning your defenses.

2. Implement a Multi-prong security approach

Defending against DDoS attacks requires a multi-pronged approach combining proactive measures and reactive strategies. While completely preventing DDoS attacks may be challenging, organizations can significantly mitigate their impact by implementing a solid defense plan. DDoS mitigation best practices in your security program should include:

• Monitor Traffic Patterns

Your first line of defense is constant monitoring. Install tools to analyze website traffic 24/7 and alert you to unusual spikes or changes. By spotting anomalies early, your team can investigate and stop bots or potential attacks before serious overload occurs.

• Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF sits in front of your web servers, filtering requests for signs of malicious activity. It can stop bots and detect and block common exploits like SQL injection or cross-site scripting before they reach your applications. By preventing harmful traffic, Fastly’s WAF protects you from dealing with disruptions after the fact.

• Implement Rate Limiting

No system can handle unlimited traffic indefinitely. Set access thresholds using edge rate limiting, so abnormal volumes are automatically managed without impacting normal users. This ensures your digital presence remains responsive for genuine customers during episodes of elevated traffic loads.

• Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

CDNs make your website’s digital assets available from multiple server locations worldwide. This distributed architecture means that if one region faces elevated traffic, others nearby can handle the extra load to ensure you can continue serving customers.

• Employ IP Blacklisting

You also have the option of banning specific IP addresses known to cause problems in the past. Keep records of addresses engaged in questionable traffic patterns and automatically reject their future requests. This denies bad actors the ability to disrupt your business's operations.

• Conduct Regular Security Audits

Review your defenses periodically. As threats evolve, so too must protections. By scheduling security audits, your business can ensure tools remain up-to-date and appropriately configured to safeguard operations.

• Establish an Incident Response Plan

Even the most robust measures may not prevent every attack. Have a detailed plan prepared if issues arise, so your team can respond rapidly and minimize any impact. With a process ready to execute, you can address disruptions efficiently and continue serving customers.To learn more about integrated DDoS protections, check out this resource on why security teams are switching to Fastly's next-gen WAF.

How Fastly can help you implement DDoS mitigation best practices

Maintaining comprehensive security against DDoS attacks presents major challenges in terms of cost, complexity, false positives, evolving threats, and resource intensity. However, Fastly's cloud-based DDoS protection solution directly resolves each of these concerns.

The key benefits of Fastly’s DDoS Protection include the following:

• Lowers Costs: Fastly offers cost-effective DDoS protection, which is included with its CDN services. 

• Flexible payment options: let you choose the package suited to your needs, with unlimited overage protection. Consolidating with a single vendor for security, CDN, and edge cloud services is the more affordable choice.

• Simplifies Complexity: Fastly's solution requires no complex setup or manual tuning on your side. The network automatically absorbs layer 3/4 attacks, while the next-gen WAF seamlessly handles Layer 7 threats.

• Reduces False Positives: Fastly's advanced SmartParse detection engine accurately classifies requests while minimizing the false positives that could block real users.

• Continuously Evolves: Fastly enhances detection and mitigation based on solid intelligence, letting you stay ahead of evolving global attack trends.

• Resource Efficient: Fastly's massive 336 Tbsp network has a built-in capacity to absorb even extraordinary attacks without performance impacts. Automated edge mitigation also reduces the origin load.