14 DAY TRIAL // The distributed denial of service has been revealed to be the second most feared thing for Internet Service providers out there, as a recent study by Arbor Networks shows. Their worst fear is a botnet, since not only can it be used for DDoS but it has other capabilities, too. However, BT, in partnership with Arbor Networks announced this week the launch of a new security system, bound to counter DDoS attacks.
Ray Stanton, global head of BT's business continuity, security and governance practice, said: "This is an exciting development for BT. We have worked in very close partnership with Arbor Networks to produce a solution that will redefine how we respond to increasingly targeted and pernicious DDoS attacks. Our solution provides a very high integration between sensing and mitigation devices and, therefore, the quickest response time to attacks."
The way it works is not very difficult to understand once you learn how DDoS attacks are crated. For a distributed denial of service, you need to flood a target till it crashes. So these guys, basically came up with a filter - their system can tell when a lot of illegitimate traffic targets a single machine, thus identifying a DDoS attack. After that, it just filters the traffic and only the legitimate info gets through.
Stanton added: "Today's bot networks are now more likely to be controlled by criminals than hackers. Criminals don't do things for fun; they have a profit motive. Bot networks are being used to send phishing e-mails and other spam. They're being used for click fraud. And they're being used as an extortion tool, increasingly against meanstream businesses: Pay up or we'll DDoS you! Companies need to think about how they are protecting themselves."
If this proves to be as efficient as they claim it will be, then I guess soon after this, more similar systems will be implemented, so DDoS attacks will no longer be a problem. All it takes is for people to realize they're facing a threat and that they need protection.