DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation encompasses the strategies, architectures, and technologies used to detect and neutralize volumetric, protocol, and application-layer attacks designed to overwhelm network infrastructure and disrupt service availability. Effective mitigation requires a multi-layered approach combining upstream filtering, on-premise defenses, and incident response procedures.
DDoS mitigation operates across multiple layers. Upstream or cloud-based scrubbing services absorb volumetric attacks by routing traffic through high-capacity cleaning centers that filter malicious packets before they reach the target network. CDN-based protection distributes traffic across global edge nodes, absorbing attacks at the network periphery. On-premise DDoS appliances handle lower-volume attacks and provide granular control over mitigation policies. Protocol-level defenses include SYN flood protection using SYN cookies, TCP connection rate limiting, and protocol validation that drops malformed packets. Application-layer mitigation employs behavioral analysis, CAPTCHA challenges, and request rate limiting to distinguish legitimate users from attack traffic. Anycast routing distributes attack traffic across multiple mitigation nodes. BGP flowspec enables rapid deployment of traffic filtering rules across network infrastructure during active attacks.
DDoS attacks continue to grow in both frequency and magnitude, with attacks exceeding multiple terabits per second now commonplace. Even brief service outages cause revenue loss, reputational damage, and potential SLA violations. DDoS attacks are also used as smokescreens to distract security teams while other attacks proceed. Organizations without robust mitigation capabilities are vulnerable to extortion, competitive sabotage, and hacktivism-motivated disruption.
CDA addresses DDoS resilience within the Vulnerability and Surface Defense domain. Our missions include DDoS risk assessment, architecture review, mitigation solution evaluation, runbook development, and tabletop exercises that prepare teams for real attack scenarios. We stress-test mitigation capabilities with controlled simulations.