This article was contributed by Harry Wilson who works as a senior digital marketing consultant at Globex Outreach.
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) continues to threaten organizations as it reaches record highs. Numbers from a cybersecurity trends study for the second half of 2023 show that the maximum attack capacity of DDoS doubled to 1.6 Tbps compared to what it was in the first half. The duration of attacks has also increased, some lasting up to nine hours.
Meanwhile, there are questions as to whether or not Windows environments are more vulnerable to DDoS attacks. There are no authoritative studies that would show one way or the other. However, what is certain is that the operating system matters. DDoS attacks take place at the network layer, but if the server operating system has exploitable vulnerabilities, the likelihood of successful DDoS attacks increases.
Windows is a relatively well-defended operating system. However, there are steps to take to ascertain that it does not easily succumb to denial-of-service attacks. Here are three main ways to proactively stop and mitigate DDoS attacks in Windows environments.
Implementing Defense In-Depth
Defense in depth refers to the use of multiple layers of security to counter DDoS attacks. It involves the enforcement of various defensive measures at different levels of the network infrastructure to become resilient against denial-of-service attacks. DDoS attack perpetrators employ different strategies to overwhelm their targets including volumetric, reflective, application, and resource-exhaustive attacks. It is advisable to use a combination of on-prem and cloud-based prevention and mitigation solutions to ensure more effective protection.
Defense in depth usually has the following components: perimeter defense, traffic anomaly detection, ingress and egress filtering, network segmentation, application-layer protection, and redundancy and failover mechanisms. These components complement each other in ensuring effective DDoS defense.
Perimeter defense is the first line of defense. It entails the use of firewalls, rate intrusion prevention systems (IPS), as well as rate limiters to detect and filter out traffic that is deemed malicious or anomalous. It is highly effective against volumetric attacks and stops attacks from overwhelming network bandwidth.
Traffic anomaly detection involves the analysis of traffic to identify activity patterns or indicators of anomalies. It makes use of specialized traffic analysis tools that spot deviations from what is regarded as normal or safe behavior. This is preferably performed on a real-time basis to ensure the prompt detection and remediation of attacks.
Ingress and egress filtering are also a form of traffic analysis but it focuses on the inspection of the legitimacy of the source and destination of traffic. Ingress filtering scans incoming traffic to ascertain that it comes from legitimate origins and to ensure that incoming traffic conforms with security protocols. Meanwhile, egress filtering evaluates outgoing traffic to stop transmissions that appear to come from compromised devices.
Network segmentation is more of a mitigation solution than a preventive mechanism. It does not stop attacks but prevents them from downing a network rapidly. By dividing a network into different segments or zones, it becomes easier to isolate an attack and apply remediation more effectively.
Application-layer protection, as the phrase suggests, focuses on combating DDoS through applications such as web application firewalls (WAFs) and load balancers. These solutions identify malicious traffic and block them before they manage to go through applications or the network.
Lastly, redundancy and failover mechanisms should be in place to ensure that service availability remains uninterrupted during DDoS attacks. There should be redundant defensive systems to carry on traffic filtering in case one of the firewall systems, for example, fails. There should also be a mechanism to automatically reroute traffic to alternative servers or data centers in cases of attacks.
Using Content Delivery Networks
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are distributed server networks operating in strategic geographical locations to mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks. They are usually not directly involved in the identification and prevention of attacks, but they play a vital role in ensuring that attacks do not easily result in downtimes. CDNs cache and distribute online content including web pages, videos, images, and other web assets, both static and dynamic, to servers that are in close proximity to the intended users. Their presence makes it difficult for DDoS perpetrators to achieve their goal of disrupting online services.
CDNs serve as the cushion that absorbs the shock of a DDoS attack in a number of ways. For one, they perform traffic offloading, wherein they serve as a buffer between the server and end users to prevent malicious traffic from overwhelming the server. They are also in anycast routing to direct incoming traffic to multiple CDN edge servers to weaken the effect of a DDoS attack. There are also advanced CDNs that come with security features like traffic scrubbing and filtering. They may also have their own web application firewalls, SSL/TLS encryption, and the ability to address bot attacks.
Not many organizations would consider CDNs a necessity mostly because they don’t consider their operations to be content-heavy. However, CDNs can be significantly helpful, especially for online stores that may suddenly see their product database becoming inaccessible because of a DDoS attack.
Collaborating With ISPs and CERTs
Organizations can build collaborative relationships with their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to jointly address DDoS attacks. ISPs can monitor network traffic patterns and may have suitable solutions to interrupt anomalous activities. They can play a supplementary role in battling denial-of-service attacks. Sometimes, they may even be the first to discover and block the attacks. Organizations can request ISPs to help deal with an ongoing attack through various solutions such as traffic filtering and mitigation and black hole routing. There are also those that operate DDoS scrubbing centers.
Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), on the other hand, are groups of experts in information security that provide detection, response, and protection solutions for cybersecurity incidents. They help resolve a variety of incidents including DDoS. Working with them is advisable, especially for organizations that do not have adequate expertise and experience in dealing with cyber threats.
Ensuring DDoS Protection for Windows
Again, Windows is not that different from other major operating systems when it comes to proneness to DDoS attacks. However, there may be issues in the way Windows systems are configured that make them vulnerable just like the Microsoft Windows Server misconfiguration vulnerability discovered in November 2022 that puts servers at risk from DDoS attacks. That’s why it is recommended to implement defense in depth and also use content delivery networks and collaborate with ISPs and CERTs to ensure reliable defense against DDoS threats.
About the author
Harry Wilson is a senior digital marketing consultant at Globex Outreach. Writing is his part-time hobby, as it allows him to share his experiences with the world. Professionally, he is dedicated to mapping out flawless digital marketing plans for the clients at his firm.
Last Updated on March 8, 2024 9:10 am CET
