Juniper Networks improves defense against DDoS attacks

Malware infections and data breaches are obviously serious concerns for any organization, but one of the most annoying—and yet crippling—attacks is the denial-of-service. Detecting and defending against DDoS attacks requires a different approach because it can be a challenge to differentiate between a legitimate spike in traffic, and a DDoS attack. Juniper Networks announced a few improvements today to its DDoS Secure solution that should help customers guard against a DDoS attack.

Citing a report from Arbor Networks, a Cnet post proclaims, “The first half of 2014 has seen the highest number and most intense DDoS attacks on record.”

“The frequency of very large attacks continues to be an issue, and organizations should take an integrated, multi-layered approach to protection,” Darren Anstee, director of solutions architects for Arbor Networks is quoted as saying by Cnet. “Even organizations with significant amounts of Internet connectivity can now see that capacity exhausted relatively easily by the attacks that are going on out there.”

Aside from the issue cited above—the challenge of telling the difference between a legitimate rise in Web traffic and a DDoS attack—the other problem IT admins struggle with is identifying and blocking the DDoS traffic at a point far enough back that it doesn’t impact the rest of the network. The DDoS solution needs to be able to block the malicious traffic as close to its source as possible. Once the traffic is inside the network, the damage is already at least partially done.

Juniper Networks has enhanced its DDoS Secure technology to allow it to detect DDoS attacks at the network and application layer—enabling the Juniper MX Series routers to function as enforcement points and stop the malicious traffic closer to its source.

“More than ever, businesses need to protect themselves against massive and complex DDoS attacks. With these new capabilities in an intelligent mitigation system, we are equipping companies to engage key network capabilities to coordinate advanced protection simply and giving them the intelligence to adapt defenses actively and extend enforcement to the edge, allowing businesses to protect their critical services even under extreme attack conditions,” said Paul Scanlon, director of product management for Juniper Networks in a statement. “By leveraging the intelligence and information inherent in the system, DDoS Secure is providing yet another capability in helping our customers build High-IQ Networks.”

DDoS attacks are a nuisance—but a nuisance that can have significant consequences, and can bring an entire company to its knees if not properly mitigated. If your business depends on its Web presence, it is more imperative with each passing day that you have effective tools in place to identify and block DDoS attacks.

For more details on the specific features and improvements Juniper Networks has introduced, take a look at the press release.