By having your business online, you are immediately a target for hackers. Market research tells us that DDoS attacks are becoming ever more popular and sophisticated, and can cause serious financial damage when they occur. According to the U.S. National Security Cyber Alliance, 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyberattack. Why wait for an attack to happen before seeking out protection? If it is essential that your services are always available to consumers, being proactive about security could save you lost profits and protect the critical asset of having a trustworthy reputation.
You will never be able to protect yourself 100% from every single threat as attacks become more sophisticated every day. However, you can select a DDoS protection service that tracks new threats and actively works to combat them. There are many providers out there, from the big players like Imperva Incapsula with its numerous mitigation techniques and huge network capacity to the smaller players like Florida-based startup Zenedge who are developing a cloud-based DDoS prevention solution that uses AI to better prevent attacks.
In addition to hiring the right protection service for your needs, you will also need to implement a security training process for employees. Teaching your staff how to identify DDoS attack traffic patterns, and how to act when under attack can be very helpful in lessening the impact when an attack hits. Some companies claim not to have the time; however, allowing employees to spend a couple hours each month training in cybersecurity could save whole days of time in the long run. Instead of ‘risk management’, it can be thought of as ‘risk agility’. The National Cybersecurity Institute states, “Not enough people are already skilled in cybersecurity, so companies need to invest in training”.
Company employees working in conjunction with a DDoS protection service can be a particularly effective combination. Employees will have a deep understanding of your network and environments while the DDoS protection service will have a profound knowledge of the latest cybersecurity methodologies, yet lack the specific experience of your environment, systems and tools.