DDoS Mitigation Services

Traffic Filtering

Traffic filtering is a core technique used in DDoS mitigation services to distinguish between legitimate and malicious requests. Through predefined security rules and real-time analysis, filters examine incoming packets for anomalies such as suspect IP addresses, protocol violations, or known attack patterns. This allows only authorized traffic to pass through, blocking bots and malicious actors attempting large-scale denial attempts.

Effective filtering requires constant updates to signature lists and whitelists to adapt to new threats. Advanced filtering systems employ behavioral analytics and machine learning to identify suspicious traffic that traditional rule-based systems might miss. By employing these dynamic approaches, mitigation providers ensure that false positives are minimized while shielding the protected application from evolving threats.

Traffic Scrubbing

Traffic scrubbing diverts incoming network traffic through specialized data centers, or “scrubbing centers,” where malicious packets are removed and cleaned traffic is forwarded to the destination server. These scrubbing centers can process massive volumes of data, leveraging high-throughput hardware and sophisticated filtering algorithms to rapidly analyze and eliminate DDoS traffic at scale.

The scrubbing process involves not only dropping malicious requests but also reconstructing sessions or connections as needed to maintain service integrity for real users. Providers maintain geographically distributed scrubbing centers for responsiveness and redundancy, ensuring that latency is minimized and that even globally-distributed attacks can be neutralized before reaching the target infrastructure.

Automated Detection and Response

Automated detection and response systems are essential to the speed and accuracy of modern DDoS mitigation services. These systems use real-time analytics to monitor incoming traffic for sudden spikes, protocol anomalies, or abnormal request behaviors consistent with typical DDoS attacks. Upon detection, the system can automatically deploy countermeasures, such as activating filters or rate limiting, with minimal human intervention.

Scalability and flexibility are crucial for automated systems since the volume and sophistication of DDoS attacks are constantly increasing. Automated workflows are engineered to respond within seconds, adapting to changes in attack tactics as they occur. This rapid, adaptive response ensures that online services remain available to legitimate users, even during sustained or evolving attack campaigns.

Layered Defense

Layered defense, or defense in depth, is a practice where multiple security controls are deployed at different points across the network and application stack to protect against DDoS attacks. This approach combines various mitigation technologies like firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and application-specific protections to address threats at every layer, from infrastructure to application.

By implementing layered defense, organizations reduce their reliance on any single point of failure and make it significantly more difficult for attackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities. This redundancy ensures that even if an attacker manages to bypass one layer, subsequent layers stand ready to detect and block malicious activities. This strategy increases the resilience of digital assets against increasingly complex and persistent DDoS attacks.

Radware’s Cloud DDoS Protection Service is a fully managed, always-on DDoS mitigation service designed to protect online applications, networks, and infrastructure against large-scale volumetric attacks, sophisticated application-layer assaults, and emerging threat vectors such as Web DDoS and burst attacks. The service combines behavioral anomaly detection, real-time signature creation, and high-capacity global scrubbing centers to ensure consistent availability with minimal latency impact.

Once onboarded, organizations can apply protections across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments, with automated attack detection and hands-on support from Radware’s Emergency Response Team (ERT).

Key features include:

Source: Radware

Cloudflare’s DDoS mitigation service defends networks, websites, and applications from some of the largest attacks recorded. With a global network spanning 330 cities and 449 Tbps of capacity, Cloudflare detects and blocks attack traffic close to its source, reducing latency.

Key features include:

Source: Cloudflare

Imperva DDoS Protection is an automated defense solution to stop volumetric, protocol-based, and application-layer attacks before they cause downtime or performance issues. With a 3-second mitigation SLA for layers 3 and 4, it ensures business continuity during high-volume assaults. The platform offers automated mitigation, fast onboarding, and ISP-agnostic compatibility.

Key features include:

Source: Imperva

FortiDDoS is an inline, purpose-built system that mitigates floods that exhaust bandwidth and resources. It operates autonomously to detect and stop multiple simultaneous attacks before services fail. It inspects every packet and makes sub-second mitigation decisions without sampling, using behavioral monitoring to spot known and zero-day patterns.

Key features include:

Source: Fortinet

Akamai DDoS Protection defends applications, APIs, and infrastructure from high-volume, and highly targeted attacks across network layers. Built on a dedicated global infrastructure, Akamai’s solution stops attack traffic in the cloud before it reaches enterprise systems, freeing up internal resources and preserving application performance.

Key features include:

Source: Akamai

• Attack coverage scope: Ensure the provider can protect against all types of DDoS attacks (volumetric, protocol-based, and application-layer) across network layers 3, 4, and 7. Specialized coverage may be required for DNS, APIs, or IoT endpoints.
• Response time and SLAs: Look for providers offering strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with guaranteed response and mitigation times. Faster reaction windows (e.g., sub-5 seconds) are critical during peak attack periods.
• Scalability under load: Assess the provider's ability to scale mitigation capacity in real time during large or sustained attacks. This includes both network bandwidth and processing capability in scrubbing centers or edge nodes.
• Integration with existing infrastructure: Compatibility with existing cloud, hybrid, or on-prem environments is essential. Solutions should integrate with current network architecture without requiring major redesigns or vendor lock-in.
• Traffic localization and latency: Global distribution of mitigation nodes or edge locations matters for minimizing latency and ensuring traffic is scrubbed close to its origin. This reduces collateral performance impact on legitimate users.

• Detection accuracy and false positives: High precision in identifying malicious traffic is critical to avoid blocking legitimate users. Providers should use adaptive detection techniques like machine learning and behavioral analysis to reduce false positives.
• Deployment flexibility: Options for always-on, on-demand, or hybrid deployment models should be available to suit different business needs. Enterprises with seasonal traffic patterns or varying risk exposure benefit from this flexibility.
• Visibility and control: Real-time dashboards, logs, and customizable mitigation rules give internal teams visibility into attacks and control over response strategies. This is especially important for compliance and incident response planning.
• Support during active attacks: 24/7 expert support, including access to a dedicated emergency response team, is essential during an active DDoS event. Rapid human intervention can be necessary when automated systems reach their limits.
• Cost and billing model: Understand the provider’s pricing structure (flat-rate, pay-as-you-go, or usage-based) and evaluate it against expected traffic volumes and attack frequencies. Transparent pricing helps avoid unexpected costs during high-traffic incidents.