Infographic: How Does a DDoS Mitigation System Work?

The only way to prevent a DDoS attack from taking out your website is to implement a DDoS mitigation system. DDoS mitigation systems are typically automated – the software works by distilling millions of data points which it then analyses to determine if any part of that data presents a DDoS threat. The software carries out its analytical function on the basis of established DDoS attack metrics. However, these automated mitigation systems tend to be effective only part of the time for the simple reason that automated systems are fallible, primarily because they take time to catch up to the latest tactics employed by DDoS attackers. 

The 10 Most Useful Wordpress Plugins For Your Business

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Many WordPress bloggers and web publishers spend so much time going through various plugins, installing and removing them, trying them out and then changing them later, and so on. Finding the best and most useful WordPress plugins can be a taxing and a challenging task.

Well, don’t you worry. We’ve made it easy for you! We compiled our very own list of the most valuable plugins that WordPress publishers like you will surely love and greatly benefit from.

What Are The Top 5 DDoS Protection Techniques?

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Experts in the cyber world agree on one thing and that is the alarming simplicity and massive dangers of distributed denial of service attacks. These attacks, also known as DDoS attacks, come in many forms and have taken down websites of large organizations including banks. This is extremely dangerous not just for the organization that is under attack but also the different users and clients that access the websites or online services of such an organization. Therefore it is imperative to take adequate steps to protect a websiteto withstand and deflect such DDoS attacks. There is a vast range as far as techniques of DDoS protection go but here is a list of the best of these techniques. 

1. Going with geographical blocking. This may seem like a rather big and extreme step to take but has had its benefits for quite a few websites. Essentially, geo-blocking works when a network identifies a particular region or country that is sending most of the “bad” or dangerous traffic to their site. This network or website will then take steps to block off the entire region or country. This eliminates all traffic that originates from these countries and therefore needs a lot of thought before being implemented.


2. Using SYN Proxy - whenusing a SYN attack mode, DDoS attacks use multiple computers to transmit SYN packets by replicating otherwise genuine IP addresses. The receiving server adds these packets to a central data structure of its own but since these are false packets or false commands, the network is unable to respond to these data packets and therefore cascades into failure. By making use of SYN proxy protection, a network can deploy a kind of gateway appliance that resides in front of the actual server. This mechanism waits until the false IP address responds with the right kind of acknowledgement and only then forwards connection requests to the actual server.


3. Investing in robust IT infrastructure - one of the ways in which DDoS can be mitigated is to invest in extremely superior IT infrastructure. If an organization has enough bandwidth that can help it sustain and deflect DDoS attacks then it can survive rather easily. Basically this means that an organization has more muscle power by way of processing power and network bandwidth that will prove mightier than any level of DDoS attacks.


4. Limiting connections - one of the ways in which DDoS attacks work is by causing a server to crash because they can overloaded it with requests for connections. One of the ways in which such an attack can be countered is by limiting the requests for new connections and giving the server time to digest and process pending requests before moving on to new ones.


5. Dynamic filtering - considering the fact that the landscape of DDoS attacks is constantly changing and attackers are evolving to newer and more lethal methods, DDOS prevention services should also go through this kind of dynamic growth. Dynamic filter helps in deflecting such bad traffic by creating a short span filtering rule. This rule can be eliminated once a specific time duration has lapsed.

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James is a writer and blogger with 5 years experience.

Forrester Overview: the Rise and Fall of Information Security Technologies

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The popularity of the individual technologies for information security sometimes increases and sometimes decreases. Forrester Research in its report TechRadar bets on five technologies that are at the stage of growth, and five of those, that are dying.

Here are five technologies the popularity of which according to analysts from Forrester will grow in the future years.

1. Audit tools

According to a Forrester research the current implementations of audit tools are not changing too much, but in three or five years they will be widely used because of the growing number of data leaks. Mainly the rising popularity of these tools contributes to the emergence of standards for information security. That's why massive introduction of such decisions is expected in the nearest future.

2. Analysis of malicious software (malware)

The fact that such an analysis is used in incident response and vulnerability management, suggests that in the nearest future (3-5 years) the adoption of such tools will increase. In particular, some more thorough analysis of network traffic is needed due to the constant threats.

3. Network Encryption

Although the function of network encryption is present in the IT-infrastructure devices such as routers and switches, Forrester notes that because of the numerous requirements of standards for information security including encryption and data protection, demand for a separate application is now at the stage of growth. In one to three years, we will see a qualitative change in this area (a new stage of development), but without pressure from regulators this technology will be implemented only by large organizations, according to Forrester.

4. Intelligent modeling of threats

This is rather new concept that deals with analyzing the right way to protect sensitive data through proactive threat modeling. After 3-5 years there may be the next stage of technology development, although the cost and complexity of currently available modeling tools creates a barrier to threats adapting this new technology.

5. DDoS mitigation controls

Although the market has an anti-DDoS solutions, Forrester points out that the market is still extremely small recently. However, due to the growth of hacking (hacktivism - in the terminology used by Forrester), the market for solutions that provide protection against DDoS attacks will grow over the 1 - 3 years. Especially rapid growth of this will be in the SaaS model.

And here are the technologies which according to Forrester will face death in the coming years.

1. Network Access Control

According to Forrester the market for individual proposals to control network access will disappear within the next 5-10 years.

2. Applications for secure data transmission

The need for secure data transfer and providing file sharing between business partners, of course, is still high, but in 3-5 years all these services will be implemented through cloud services rather than applications.

3. Solutions for unified threat management (UTM)

Although these solutions are widely implemented in both small offices and branch offices, the technology of integrated threat management faces the fact that the focus of attention is shifting to the new security gateways with more integrated functions and determination of the invasion.

4. The traditional network firewall

The traditional firewall market is stagnating due to the wide adoption of the next-generation firewalls. The research company predicts that in 5-10 years a new generation of firewalls will replace today's traditional firewalls.

5. Preventing network intrusion (some solutions)

Forrester believes that the market of individual intrusion prevention systems (IPS) is at the stage of decline, and it will disappear within 5-10 years) despite its success in the world's largest companies for now. Instead there will be some new multifunction gateways and firewalls (especially the new generation of firewalls), which will include IPS and will be used instead of a separate IPS equipment.

The article was written and provided by Andrew Smith, QArea Company. Read about the company here.

Internet Bots, Computer Bots, They can be a Help or Not

Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey.

A bot is an important thing that a computer uses when on the Internet. A bot is an application that works to run automated activities for maintenance and protection when the user is on the Internet. There are some instances of where bots can be dangerous. So, how can you tell if your computer is bot infected? You can find out when you follow the tips mentioned here.

Image via Wikipedia

How can you tell if your computer is bot infected? You can find out by seeing if your Internet activities have been involuntarily restricted. There are various different types of bots that can be dangerous to a computer. Some bots will cause denial of service attacks to take place. This is where the user who is trying to get it to work cannot access a resource that is on a computer. It will be impossible for you to access certain websites on the Internet. This is one of the main ways of how can you tell if you computer is bot infected.

You can tell if there is a good amount of computer viruses that are found on your computer during a virus scan. Even though a typical antivirus program will update itself often and do automatic scanning and protection, there can be instances where new viruses can sneak onto your computer that are not listed in the definitions that your computer program has. Many malicious bots will have these new viruses on them, so you should especially watch out for these when you are online.

One of the best things to do to find out how can you tell if your computer is bot infected is by checking to see how much spam you are getting in your email account. Bots will be especially effective in creating spam that can be sent to infected computers. This can even affect email servers that have strong spam filters. The reason why these filters will be avoided when bots send spam is that in some cases multiple bots on multiple systems can work together to send different pieces of spam. This takes place through a botnet that can build up when one bot infects a computer and it spreads to other computers.

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Another thing to do is if you live in an area that is near a bot control server. Bots have become a global problem in many countries that have control servers that send bots to other innocent computers. The United States has most of these servers, particularly in the Washington D.C. and Chicago areas. Atlantic Canada, Stockholm and Seoul also have large servers. These are areas that have the highest concern levels.

Are there any products that can help you with understanding about bot infections and that tell you how can you tell if your computer is bot infected? Of course there are. You can check to make sure that your firewall and antivirus programs are fully updated and contain the latest patches. After you update the program, you can run a scan to see if your computer is bot infected.

Prevention is an even more important thing to use though. Having a firewall program is helpful. Protecting personal information that you may be sending online should be used too, as you should only give it to legitimate sites that are trusted. Do not forget to avoid spam emails that may sound like a good deal. This is one of the main ways of how bots can spread onto a computer, and it can indeed be prevented.