Incapsula Caters to SMBs with Anti-DDoS IT Security Guide

With the data centers of major organizations being hacked left and right these days, there may seem to be little anyone can do to protect IT security and assure compliance. But Incapsula says there are actually a lot of steps that even small and medium businesses should take to provide better security, and it has released a free guide tailored to addressing one of the most common kinds of breaches, DDoS attacks.

Christopher Tozzi, Contributing Editor

November 3, 2014

2 Min Read
Incapsula Caters to SMBs with Anti-DDoS IT Security Guide

With the data centers of major organizations being hacked left and right these days, there may seem to be little anyone can do to protect IT security and assure compliance. But Incapsula says there are actually a lot of steps that even small and medium businesses should take to provide better security, and it has released a free guide tailored to addressing one of the most common kinds of breaches, DDoS attacks.

To be sure, DDoS attacks, which entail crashing websites or cloud-based apps by pummeling servers with more traffic than they can handle, are not quite as serious as the database breaches that have made the biggest headlines recently following the capture of millions of people's personal data from companies such as JP Morgan and Home Depot. But DDoS still wreaks plenty of havoc, and can be just as unsettling to users and customers as data-privacy breaches.

In its recent publication on this issue, the "DDoS Response Playbook," Incapsula says there's little SMBs can do to prevent DDoS attacks from occuring. Instead, the key is to prepare a competent response for when the inevitable happens, according to the company. In particular, that means:

  • Creating a response plan and designating a response team to execute it.

  • Assessing the network to identify the points that are weakest, and therefore likeliest to be the focus of attack.

  • Invest in infrastructure and tools, such as Web application firewalls, to help detect attacks and mitigate them automatically.

  • Make a plan for notifying customers that an attack is occuring, as well as for responding to potential demands from the attackers.

  • Know how to conduct an analysis after the attack to learn what went wrong, and how to prevent a recurrence.

Incapsula also advises SMBs to work in partnership with their ISPs to help prevent attacks, though again, the company, which provides security services and failover protection, emphasizes that preparing a good plan for responding to attacks is more effective than focusing on preventing them altogether.

The full report is available as a free download (though Incapsula asks for registration information).

Read more about:

AgentsMSPsVARs/SIs

About the Author

Christopher Tozzi

Contributing Editor

Christopher Tozzi started covering the channel for The VAR Guy on a freelance basis in 2008, with an emphasis on open source, Linux, virtualization, SDN, containers, data storage and related topics. He also teaches history at a major university in Washington, D.C. He occasionally combines these interests by writing about the history of software. His book on this topic, “For Fun and Profit: A History of the Free and Open Source Software Revolution,” is forthcoming with MIT Press.

Free Newsletters for the Channel
Register for Your Free Newsletter Now

You May Also Like