DDoS attacks on the rise: Should I upgrade the DNS provision for my critical domains?
During these challenging times, our dependence for online services has increased substantially resulting in a reciprocal need to bolster resilience in the critical digital ecosystems that support these services. Businesses across the globe, including our own, have closed their physical offices and successfully transitioned to a work from home model. As a result, there has been a rise in Internet usage, particularly video conferencing, which is changing our standard modus operandi and having positive outcomes for both society and business. Alongside the substantial benefits the Internet has provided, there has inevitably been an increase in COVID-19 themed cyber-crime too.
The global pandemic has presented the bad guys with an opportunity to prey on and exploit both systemic and human vulnerabilities. The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) [1]report targeting of COVID-19 related malicious activity through phishing emails and SMS messages containing malware supposedly from the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Other scams claim to offer thermometers and face masks to help fight the pandemic. There is also evidence that cyber criminals are scanning for vulnerabilities in software and remote working tools, as more individuals work from home driving a considerable demand on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).
Business CISOs, CTOs and their teams are now reviewing and adjusting their security policies and controls in response to these threats. It is a priority that their key digital services such as critical domain names, web sites, and email continue to operate efficiently at high performance and availability, even when subjected to volumetric distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Ensuring this level of service and protection requires a resilient DNS service, which ensures uninterrupted name to IP address resolution – a critical digital service, without which your service stops working.
So, when and why should domain owners upgrade their DNS provision to improve performance, resilience and availability? Hayath Hussein, Com Laude’s Global Operations Director offers some great advice:
“Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are not a new phenomenon but in recent years there has been an upward trend both in terms of frequency and size of attack; giving rise to reputational damage, financial losses and the in-ability to conduct business online.
I strongly recommend using a DDoS resilient DNS service on domains that would adversely affect your business in the event of any downtime. These will tend to be your key domains, that support your websites and emails – your digital crown jewels. It makes sense for many businesses to use a solution that withstands high volumetric attacks.”
Com Laude’s Premium DNS solution, delivered in partnership with Neustar addresses the risks of DDoS attacks and provides:
- 100% uptime guarantee and peace of mind that your critical domain names and services will always resolve in the DNS
- A geographically dispersed network of DNS servers at 30 locations with inbuilt DDoS protection
- 14 scrubbing centres used to filter out bad traffic generated by DDoS attacks, keeping good traffic flowing and services available
Our tried and tested migration approach offers a simple transfer process to the premium platform while maintaining the functionality to manage the domain names, and associated DNS, through our online portal.
Given the current climate, Com Laude are offering preferential terms to existing and new clients to upgrade their DNS provision for key domains to our premium platform. Current clients can directly reach out to their Domain Strategists to process their upgrade. New clients are encouraged to contact marketing@comlaude.com.
[1] https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/security-agencies-issue-covid-19-cyber-threat-update