I have seen organizations suffer significant financial damage due to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks can cripple a company’s online presence, resulting in lost revenue, damaged reputation, and a potential loss of customer trust. It’s not just about preventing such attacks but also having a plan to defend against one. In this article, we will explore one of the most effective ways to guard against DDoS attacks: Flood Guard. So, let’s get started and learn how you can protect your business from these malicious attacks.

What attack does flood guard protect against?

Understanding Flood Guard in Cybersecurity

Flood Guard is a critical security feature that protects network resources from attacks designed to overload them. Such attacks include DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) and SYN Flood attacks, which can cause unbearable damage to the target network. Flood Guard is designed to monitor and identify any unusual traffic that is sent to the network in an attempt to overwhelm it. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at how Flood Guard works and the benefits it provides in cybersecurity.

Network Resource Overload: An Introduction

Network resource overload, also known as network saturation, is a common cyber attack aimed at exhausting the available computing resources of a target network. It involves sending a high volume of requests or data traffic to a particular target server or website, causing it to crash or become unavailable to legitimate traffic.

Most network saturation attacks are carried out using botnets, i.e., a group of infected computers that are controlled remotely by a cyber attacker in order to carry out the attack. The primary goal of a network saturation attack is often to deny users access to critical services. However, in some cases, cyber attackers may use them to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.

What Are DoS Attacks?

DoS attacks, or Denial of Service attacks, are a type of cyber attack that aims to bring down a network, server, or website by overwhelming it with traffic requests. DoS attacks are usually carried out using a single computer or multiple computers (a botnet), which bombard a specific target with network traffic. The result is a network or server outage, which can take hours or even days to resolve.

There are two main types of DoS attacks, namely network-based DoS attacks and application-based DoS attacks. A network-based attack targets the infrastructure of the network, while an application-based attack targets an application, such as a web server or email server.

What Are SYN Floods?

SYN Floods are a type of DoS attack that focuses on overwhelming a target network by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the TCP/IP protocol. In a SYN Flood attack, the attacker bombards a target network with a flood of random or spoofed SYN packets. This causes the victim network’s TCP stack to hold these half-open connections, thus using up resources and effectively causing a denial of service to legitimate users.

SYN Floods can be particularly dangerous because they are simple to execute and can be carried out with a single computer. They can also be challenging to detect and protect against due to the sheer volume of traffic that they generate.

How Does Flood Guard Work as a Protection?

Flood Guard is a critical protection tool against DoS and SYN Flood attacks. It works by limiting the amount of traffic that can be sent to the target network, thus preventing the attacker from saturating the network’s resources. Flood Guard technology can detect unusual traffic patterns that are indicative of an attack and block incoming traffic from the source IP address.

Flood Guard also uses rate limiting, which slows down the rate at which requests are processed, thus reducing the likelihood of an attack being successful. Additionally, Flood Guard can also redirect traffic to another network or server, thereby reducing the impact of an attack on the target network.

Benefits of Incorporating Flood Guard on Networks

Incorporating Flood Guard into your network offers several benefits, including:

• Improved network security: Flood Guard provides critical protection against network saturation by limiting the amount of traffic that can be sent to the target network.
• Improved network performance: By limiting the amount of traffic that can be sent to the target network, Flood Guard helps to prevent network performance degradation caused by network saturation.
• Reduced downtime: Flood Guard can keep your network available and running by blocking incoming requests from malicious sources that consume network resources and bring it down.

Best Practices in Preventing Network Overload Attacks

In addition to incorporating Flood Guard in your network, there are other best practices that can be implemented to prevent network overload attacks. These include:

• Update software: Regularly updating applications, operating systems, and antivirus software helps to close loopholes that hackers can exploit.
• Secure Network: Secure your network using firewalls, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), among others.
• Limit access: Restrict access to critical network resources, such as admin accounts, to prevent unauthorized access.
• Educate employees: Educate employees on common cyber threats and how to prevent them from becoming victims of cyber attacks.

In conclusion, Flood Guard is a critical security feature that complements other security measures to prevent network overload attacks. By understanding the different types of DoS attacks, such as SYN Floods, you can take the necessary steps to safeguard your network, including incorporating Flood Guard. Other best practices, such as regular software updates, network security, and employee training, can also help to reduce the impact of cyber attacks.