Understanding DDoS Attacks:
The CISA and FBI Guidelines
DDoS attacks have become the “most popular” and common forms of cyber-attacks in recent years. These somewhat simple attacks evolved to become more intense and multimodal, and in some cases, DDoS attacks take the shape of a ransom-demand act. Due to various global reasons and changes, such as the Covid19 crisis, the global lockdown, the war in Ukraine, and political instability worldwide, DDoS mitigation companies were forced to amplify their efforts to mitigate and protect organizations against DDoS attacks. And now, the world’s most powerful government has come forward, declaring that DDoS attacks are a threat to be reckoned with.
In a recent whitepaper that was created by CISA, the FBI and MS_ISAC, the US government declared DDoS attacks as a viable and critical cyber threat. The whitepaper serves as a good and short introduction to the world of DDoS attacks. It gives a clear and solid explanation about the difference between DoS and DDoS and provides a basic perspective to those who need to get themselves familiar with the important terminology and understand what steps they should take before being hit by a DDoS attack. These include identifying potential network chokepoints and mitigations that might minimize disruptions, understanding one’s service provider defenses, developing an organizational DDoS response and business plan (as DDoS attacks usually cause downtime and sometimes even full shutdown of services and access), and more.
The whitepaper offers an overview of what’s crucial if your organization comes under a DDoS attack, what actions are needed, and practical steps for emergency protocols. With increased DDoS incidents across financial, governmental, and gaming sectors, the FBI’s and CISA’s report is a great starting point, but a proactive approach is also needed. According to a Microsoft 2022 Digital Defense report, “attack complexity, frequency, and volume continue to grow and are no longer limited to holiday seasons, indicating a shift toward year-round attacks. This highlights the importance of ongoing protection beyond traditional peak traffic seasons.”
Simply put – DDoS attacks are not only evolving, in terms of complexity and the potential damage they will cause – they are also growing to be more common, to the point of turning into a global threat. MazeBolt introduces a new level of visibility into the growing threat of DDoS with RADAR™ testing that identifies DDoS vulnerabilities across the entire attack surface as well as provides remediation insights. By continuously detecting threats and misconfigurations, and analyzing and prioritizing remediation across the network, your organization can be better prepared for these threats, as, sadly, no one is immune.
RADAR™ testing seamlessly works with all the organizations’ mitigation layers, automatically simulating all known DDoS attacks on live environments with ZERO operational downtime. The solution is adaptive, ensuring that your mitigation systems are up to date on all DDoS vulnerabilities with full visibility, enabling security teams to establish a long-term protection and prevention strategy. So that the next time a report about the risks of DDoS attacks is published, you and your organization can rest assured that you’ve taken the necessary steps to stay protected.
