How to Protect Against Denial of Service Attacks

ByDaniel Gottilla

anti-virus software, denial of service attacks, vulnerability management, vulnerability management development, vulnerability management program, vulnerability scanning tools

How to Protect Against Denial of Service Attacks

There are many critical steps to keeping your network and applications safe, but how do you protect against denial of service attacks? If an outside party is flooding your email with spam, you won’t be able to receive new messages. If they are inundating your website with information and requests, it could slow your system to a crawl or even crash it. With your system is compromised, an attacker may even use your resources to attack another business. The real question is, what can you do to prevent this sort of attack?

Understanding how your infrastructure and network are set up is crucial. Make sure that your IT staff knows the ins and the outs of the hardware and software so that they can not only make it as secure as possible, but so they can also pinpoint what portion is being attacked. Keep documentation about the system setup and any changes made to it, and be sure that this record is kept up-to-date. You should know that if your system is used to attack another business, you may be held legally responsible for the damage!

Tips for Denial of Service Preparedness

• Test yourself to see what your system can handle. Be sure to test your volume over the Internet and assess your systems locally. If you know what the network’s breaking point is by creating your own denial of service attack, you can better understand how to protect your company from a real one.
• Keep your spam filters up-to-date. That step seems very obvious, but if spam is rejected it can’t fill up your inbox.
• Make sure that you have the space to handle a dramatic increase in server volume. By knowing as well as testing your system capabilities and limits you can better assess them to see how far they can be pushed before they crash.
• In the event you are attacked, be sure to contact your local FBI field office. Denial of service attacks are against the law, and it’s important that you report an attack on your system. Not only will it help law enforcement investigate the crime, it will give them additional information to help prevent this sort of attack on your business and others in the future. It doesn’t matter if the attack was successful or not it’s against the law all the same.

Knowing how to protect your business against denial of service attacks is a critical portion of IT security. It will help protect your network and reputation, as well as help protect other businesses that may get caught in the crossfire. By using the steps above, you can help make your company less likely to be the victim of a successful attack.