DDoS Stress Test Case Study: HK Int'l Insurance Company
DDoS testing with high-performance hardware and enormous bandwidth
Background
Two years ago, a world-renowned insurance institution set up a dedicated server with UDomain so as to store its ocean of sensitive survey data. It came to its attention that cyber security threats have become more and more prevalent lately. Considering that the data in the server are its strategic assets and can’t afford to be at risk, enhancing its information security is no longer an option but a mandate. While it requested internal parties to raise the bar for the organizational IT security, it at the same time expected highly of its network service provider to safeguard its server against hacking and other kinds of attacks.
Challenges
Although client is well aware of the importance of IT security, it can hardly address the ever-changing cyber threats single-handedly. Rather, it has to rely on a trustworthy network service provider who offers full protection at server level. Apart from analysing the security risks and loopholes in the hardware, the service provider should be responsible for feeding client with the latest security updates and taking every possible defensive measure against potential risks. Above all, client is concerned about whether the service provider is capable of dealing with network attacks, say, the widespread DDoS attacks, which pop up each and every day.
In this digital age which everything is quantifiable and measurable, corporate clients are not easy to be convinced in the absence of objective data and statistics. This insurance institution is no different here. Client expects that networks services can be complemented with testing data for validation of service quality so as to justify its choice of vendors. After all, letting data speak for themselves is one of the best tactics for effectively communicating with its internal stakeholders. As far as it can observe, the market currently falls short of decent network service providers who are resourceful enough to offer comprehensive security solutions and are at the same time willing to spare time and effort on rendering testing results. And UDomain is the jewel in the crown.
Our Solutions
High-Performance Hardware + 10G Bandwidth = Against DDoS
Striving for the best interests of clients and the highest possible service quality should always be the top business priority of anyresponsible network service providers. This is what UDomain firmly believes in. From time to time, we have been investing heavily in ourown infrastructure and IT safeguards in order to provide secure and reliable services to our clients. A far-sighted industry leader in theGreater China region, we took the initiative to conduct DDoS testing using 10G local bandwidth and 1.5G overseas bandwidth yearsago. By now, we have already built up strong expertise and hands-on experience in offering internet security solutions while the otherservice providers are still struggling to keep up with our pace. This is the very reason why client has full confidence in our DDoS testingresults and the associated security solutions.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) involves overloading the target server with external communication requests so that the target will encounter difficulties in responding to legitimate traffic. It will lead to slow data transmissions, traffic congestions and evenserver downtimes, and the affected party is prone to suffering losses and damages. From a technical point of view, a network service provider who wants to test out anti-DDoS solutions must possess high-performance hardware and sufficient bandwidth.Neither one is indispensable. Unfortunately, it is a shame that not many market players are properly equipped due to resource constraints or reasons of their own.
Without robust equipment and a flawless operating environment, it is impossible to accommodate to the extremely high frequency of incoming data requests during DDoS testing. It is quite an investment to purchase the required hardware. And daily operations and maintenance essentially are significant cost drivers as well. In view of the huge costs required, not every network service provider is willing to get involved in the anti-DDoS domain.
When simulating DDoS attacks during the testing, there will be extreme fluctuations in network traffic. Principally, the ability to cater to those ups and downs determines how accurate and reliable the testing results will be. Strictly speaking, those service providers who are unable or unwilling to invest in bandwidth are destined to fail in safeguarding themselves against DDoS attacks, not to mention offering decent security solutions to other companies!
It takes resources to bring about the most comprehensive security solutions
DDoS can come from any corner of the globe and in different executions. Thus, the one-size-fits-all anti-DDoS solutions provided by some market players are definitely prone to failure. As always, UDomain is eager to innovate and perfect our services for the sake of our clients. After trying out different combinations of security solutions, we decided to invest in two of them, Upstream and NSFOCUS, despite the high costs. The former is one of the international bestsellers while the latter is developed out of China. They are the cornerstones of our home-grown, dual-vendor anti-DDoS technology. By combining the knowledge and expertise of the west with that of the east, our professional technical team is well-equipped to monitor and tackle even the trickiest DDoS attacks coming from any continents. According to the feedback given by our clients, our SaaS (Security As A Service) comfortably outperforms the other one-size-fits-all solutions from other companies, earning us much credibility and reputation.
It takes dedication to produce substantive testing results
Although DDoS testing is time-consuming, labour-intensive and thus uncommon among industry players, UDomain is eager to get our hands dirty. We insist on putting the best interests of our clients at the core of our business. To ensure that our service level will not be affected in any way in the course of the testing and that every client can enjoy our secure and reliable services as usual, the extensive DDoS testing was conducted using a standalone network and equipment on a non-busy Saturday night. The highlights of the testing are as follows:
- UDomain simulated the widespread and purposeful network attacks including ICMP-flood, Port 80 UDP-flood, Syn-flood, route injection and so forth.
- Our IT expert team continuously monitored the responsiveness of our anti-DDoS solutions in terms of the turnaround time of detecting attacks, re-routing, normalizing after tackling attacks and more. These statistics were then used to generate a detailed report for perusal by clients.
- Our dedicated staff kept a close eye on researchdownload.com throughout the testing. By observing the traffic coming from normal uploads and downloads, we identified the possible factors affecting network management. These gave us good clues as to how to enhance our security recommendations and solutions for clients.
Key Takeaways
The DDoS testing was successfully carried out as planned while our services to existing clients were kept intact. Results confidently validated our strong ability to tackle cyber threats given that our system managed to handle data traffic as huge as 10G per second. In addition, the insurance institution was happy getting what it wished for - the objective testing results were strong evidences that turning to UDomain had been a wise move. What’s more, client is impressed with our 24/7 technical support, professional customer service as well as our devotion of resources to fulfilling clients’ requests. We are honoured to remain as the preferred and trusted partner taking care of its dedicated server.
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