On February 7th, a massive DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack launched by
unknown internet vandals brought two of the thirteen root servers responsible
for the management of the Internet's DNS (Domain Name System) to a browsing
crawl for nearly five hours. While the attack's motive was unclear, and
although specific end users were not targeted, the ability for hackers to
direct empty requests and needless traffic to these highly protected internet
servers should serve as a wake-up call to companies concerned about their own
security and network health.
Because DoS and DDoS attacks are generally targeted at specific web site
owners/companies, the ability to take precautions and harden defense measures
rests highly on the strength of the WAN and IP network layout for businesses
to guard themselves. In a recent Network World article by Carolyn Duffy Marsan
("Lessons learned from Internet root server attack", 2/807) , ISP redundancy and
the use of multi-homing appliances like the Astrocom PowerLink™ are
listed as key steps in ensuring protection from these internet attackers.
Resiliency is reliant upon redundancy, and actively using multiple IP networks
via different providers and the PowerLink™ allows for separate paths of
traffic to be utilized and less likelihood that both/all IP addresses will be
affected. Often the ability to thwart DoS attacks from affecting your network
begins at the ISP level, and having multiple providers addressing the issue also
removes a single point of failure in maintaining and prohibiting the bandwidth
intensive requests from congesting your WAN network.
A second
suggestion of Marsan mentions the use of multiple servers at alternate locations
to combat DoS attack. With the ability of the PowerLink™ to provide for DNS
site redirection, the deployment of Astrocom multi-homing appliances at co-located back-ups
sites hardens DoS protection further and distributes a second layer of defense
against unwarranted requests that prohibit companies from the use of
mission-critical internet applications.
To learn more about recent the recent DDoS attacks, please visit
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020707-hackers-slow-internet-root-servers.html?t51hb
or to view Marsan's article on safeguarding your company, click
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020807-internet-root-server-hack.html
