KNOWLEDGE CENTER

How to choose a DDoS protection service: 12 questions to ask first

There are many companies in the DoS and DDoS denial of service protection industry. While some DDoS mitigation providers are much better and more qualified than others, we’re all essentially promising the same thing. So how do you know which DDoS protection companies are all talk and which company – when the biggest, most sophisticated DDoS attack targets your business – will deliver quick and successful DDoS mitigation when you need it most? Simple. Ask these questions:

[Click on the Questions to reveal Prolexic's answers]

How many years have you been fighting DDoS denial of service attacks using your current strategy?
Prolexic has nearly 9 years of experience of successful DDoS mitigation of more than 30,000 DDoS denial of service attacks, including the largest and most complex ever seen. Our technicians receive ongoing training in the latest DDoS mitigation methods, most of which have been developed by Prolexic as proprietary tools not available anywhere else.
How many denial of service attacks do you mitigate each month?
Our DDoS protection service successfully mitigates anywhere from 10 to 80 attacks every day – even the DDoS attacks that other DDoS mitigation providers cannot defeat. In fact, other providers often refer their DDoS attack customers to us after they’ve tried for several days and failed to mitigate an attack.
What is your typical time-to-mitigate for DDoS attacks?
Prolexic typically mitigates a DDoS attack within 5 to 20 minutes after our customers’ traffic starts flowing through one or more of our globally distributed, state-of-the-art scrubbing centers. In fact, Prolexic is the first and only company to stand behind a 15-minute time-to-mitigation service level agreement (SLA) for DDoS mitigation.
How much bandwidth do you have dedicated to mitigating DDoS attacks?
We maintain available DDoS attack bandwidth in excess of 800 Gbps through our global traffic scrubbing centers. This bandwidth is via multi-carrier arrangements, peering and strategic deployment of resources to effectively mitigate DDoS attack traffic closest to its sources. The availability of this attack bandwidth gives Prolexic a substantial advantage over any single ISP that must rely only on the capacity of its own backbone.
Describe how your DDoS protection network is globally distributed. Where are your scrubbing centers and what are the capabilities of each?
Prolexic has a distributed global network of state-of-the-art DDoS traffic scrubbing centers in the Americas, Asia, and Europe – strategically positioned to fight the largest and most active concentrations of botnets at their sources. Because we dedicate more bandwidth to DDoS attack traffic than any other provider – supplemented by proprietary tools, techniques, and experienced security experts – we have been able to handle the largest denial of service attacks ever launched.
Which personnel in your organization are devoted to fighting DDoS attacks? Does the person who answers the phone actually fight the DDoS attack, or just log the DDoS mitigation request?
DDoS protection and mitigation is our only business at Prolexic, so everyone here is devoted to fighting DDoS attacks. Prolexic operates a 24/7/365 Security Operations Center (SOC) staffed by a team of front-line DDoS experts. This capability is critical because many DDoS attacks are concerted efforts by live attackers, so success against the most sophisticated DDoSerscan only be achieved by reacting in real time to their actions and supplementing automated anti-DDoS tools with live human expertise. In this way, it is possible to distribute DDoS attack loads and combat denial of service attacks with characteristics that have never been seen before.
Which DDoS mitigation tools and techniques do you employ to detect, analyze, and mitigate DDoS attacks?
Prolexic invests heavily in the development of its own proprietary, patent-pending DDoS mitigation technology that we continually update and enhance to always stay one step ahead of new, emerging DDoS attack signatures and randomized attacks.
How does your DDoS protection service detect and mitigate application layer (Layer 7) attacks?
Prolexic DDoS protection solutions leverage the world’s largest DDoS mitigation network, proprietary filtering techniques, advanced routing, and patent-pending anti-DDoS devices to combat all types of DDoS denial of service attacks – including Layer 7 and SSL, which often overwhelm other DDoS mitigation providers. We are the only DDoS mitigation provider able to perform application-based DDoS monitoring to detect and alert on attacks against your applications..
How does your DDoS protection service detect and mitigate randomized GET flood DDoS attacks?
Prolexic technicians detect and fight randomized GET flood DDoS attacks every day. They have the extensive training and live DDoS attack monitoring experience to match skills – in real-time while the attack is taking place – with the most sophisticated attacker and win every time.
Can you produce material evidence of your research and fights against zero-day DDoS attacks?
Prolexic is the global leader in mitigating zero-day DDoS attacks, and we have the evidence to prove it. Download our case studies and learn how Prolexic has helped some of the biggest brands in e-Commerce, online gaming, the financial industry, web hosting, and others get back online within minutes after their existing DDoS provider or in-house DDoS mitigation appliance failed.
What is the largest packet per second DDoS attack (different from largest attack) you have faced?

Prolexic has successfully fought high-volume multi-event, randomized DDoS attacks that have reached unprecedented peak levels of 69 million packets per second, bandwidth of 45 Gbps of traffic per second, and 15,000 connections per second.

Prolexic can monitor your websites and protect them from all DDoS attacks – no matter how frequent, large or complex – and we don’t charge per-attack fees to do so. You can invoke our DDoS mitigation services as often as you need to protect your business, and you’ll always know what final costs will be. In addition, we provide intelligence on the latest DDoS threats in our quarterly attack reports, along with more frequent threat advisories, to help you understand the current threat landscape and prepare for potential attacks.

Will your DDoS service black hole our IP address to protect your other business lines if we are under attack – removing us from the Internet?

Blackholing your IP traffic is not part of Prolexic's strategy – it accomplishes the aim of the DDoS attacker. Prolexic further works to ensure that no legitimate traffic is ever halted to your site.

We are happy to provide more detailed answers to all of these questions – simply contact us by clicking here or call us at + 1 (888) 368 2923.Once you compare our responses to other DDoS protection you’ll recognize that in the DDoS detection and mitigation industry, no one provides better DDoS protection than Prolexic.

Click here to download the Evaluation Worksheet: DDoS Mitigation Providers
Click here to download the White Paper - Twelve Questions to Ask a DDoS Mitigation Provider

Sincerely,

Stuart Scholly
President
Prolexic

Customer Spotlight

  • Global Fragrance and
    Beauty Products Retailer

    A DDoS attack takes down this popular site for 24 hours. Prolexic restores in 5 minutes.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Leading Online Jewelry Retailer

    A DDoS attack took down the site of a premier jewelry retailer for nearly three days.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Online Options Trading

    Financial services firm avoids extortion attempt. Prolexic keeps web site up during vicious Layer 7 attack.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • e-Commerce Startup

    When others couldn't mitigate the latest DDoS attack, a "daily deal" web site called Prolexic: problem solved in 2 hours.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • A Leading Content Rating Organization

    A 9 million packets per second DDoS attack brings down web site before Prolexic steps in.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Spa and Wellness Firm

    Prolexic quickly stops a combination Layer 4 and 7 DDoS attack after a host's mitigation
    capabilities falls short.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Foundation Management

    Prolexic mitigates GET flood in minutes for new client after Sunday night emergency call.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Web site building and
    hosting services firm

    Prolexic mitigates Layer 4 UDP flood peaking at 6.2 Gbps. Protects 6 million Yolasites.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Online Movie Subscription Service

    After seeing all traffic route to Prolexic, hackers pull the plug on DDoS attack.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • IPG Holdings Limited

    Prolexic mitigates Layer 7 GET floods targeting payment processing platform.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • VirtualRoad.org

    Prolexic mitigates politically motivated attacks against web hosting company's clients.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Financial Services Firm Global eSolutions

    Prolexic mitigates Layer 3, 4 and 7 attacks against Forex trading platform.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Krebs on Security

    Prolexic fends off Pandora DNS amplification attacks for popular cyber security blog.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • e-Commerce Provider of Printed Promotion Items

    Prolexic mitigates two-week Layer 7 DDoS attack campaign.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Global Blogging Site

    Prolexic protects freedom of speech for 30 million users targeted by six-month political DDoS campaign.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Online Credit Card Site

    Prolexic mitigates Layer 4 DDoS attacks against Ixaris site, EntroPay.com.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • e-Commerce Web Site

    Prolexic mitigates Layer 3 DDoS attacks against popular penny auction site.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • e-Commerce Web Site

    Prolexic mitigates 25-40 Gbps Layer 3 DDoS attacks against online auto parts retailer.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Timepieces e-Commerce Site

    Prolexic keeps World of Watches ticking after DDoS attack flood site.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • PayPro Global

    Prolexic mitigates 16-hour Layer 7 DDoS attack on software distribution site.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Henyep Capital Markets

    Prolexic keeps Henyep accessible and trading through multiple SYN, GET and ICMP flood attacks.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Australia’s #1 Job Search Website

    Prolexic keeps Seek.com.au online and incident-free for millions of job seekers.

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • e-Commerce Hosting Provider for Top Tier Sites

    Prolexic keeps Americaneagle.com and its customers generating revenue

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Popular Online Betting Site Doesn’t Gamble with DDoS

    Prolexic ensures Betstar’s online services are reliable and incident free

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • Customer ROI requires online accessibility and reliability

    Prolexic ensures Clickpoint! Media's online services are available and incident-free

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>

  • University Federal Credit Union

    Prolexic's mitigation services now protects credit union with US$1.6 Billion in assets

    DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY >>
Announcements

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