DDoS Protection is Here!
Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
DDoS PROTECTION
DNS Shield joins forces to frustrate take-down crooks
The risk of crippled sites as a result of extortionate denial of service attacks
could be less in the future, Reuters reported this week.
A U.S. company called UltraDNS is the reason - it has introduced an Internet
security shield that it claims will help thwart denial-of-service attacks against
its customers.
The privately-held company said that it has partnered with major U.S. Internet
service and network providers such as Yahoo, EarthLink and America
Online to offer what it calls the DNS Shield.
Analysts called the shield a step forward for preventing denial-of-service attacks,
where hackers harness thousands of "zombie" computers to knock Web sites
or other computer systems offline. The attacks release an unrelenting data blitz
that can cause huge financial losses and wreak havoc.
UltraDNS Chief Executive Ben Petro said the shield is essentially a security
blanket that works by creating a private network between service providers and
the key directories that identify the locations of Web sites.
The DNS Shield protects against attacks by integrating UltraDNS servers directly
into the infrastructure of its Internet service providers. This creates totally
protected environments where only authenticated user queries are answered. It
eliminates the external data blitzes that can shut down networks and Web sites,
the company said.
Steve Crocker, chairman of the security and stability advisory committee
at ICANN, the group that oversees Internet domain names, called denial-of-service
attacks the biggest threat to the Internet, because almost anybody can launch
them from any place in the world and no easy solutions exist to stop them.
"It is a good step forward and a good thing to do, until we have a complete
solution to the denial-of-service problem," he said.
Denial-of-service attacks have targeted the U.S. government and high-profile online
vendors such as eBay. Over the past year, criminals have used them to extort payments
from online gambling operations, banks and other businesses, or to attack competitors,
experts say.
