The Ever-changing DDoS Attack
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks continue to remain the top threat to IT security and have evolved in almost every way to do what they do best: shut down your vital online services. Never has a problem been so dynamic and broad-based without being tied to one particular technology. There is almost an unlimited array of tools that Hacktivists and Cyberterrorists can use to prevent access to your network. Sophisticated DDoS attacks target Layer 7 application services where they are much smaller in size making it nearly impossible for traditional ISP-based mitigation methods to detect them.
To combat these attacks, you need a solution that is equally dynamic and broadbased. Fortinet’s FortiDDoS Attack Mitigation appliances use behavior-based attack detection methods and 100% ASIC-based processors to deliver the most advanced and fastest DDoS attack mitigation on the market today.
A Different and Better Approach to DDoS Attack Mitigation
Only Fortinet uses a 100% ASIC approach to its DDoS products without the overhead and risks of a CPU or CPU/ASIC hybrid system. The FortiASIC-TP2 transaction processors provide both detection and mitigation of DDoS attacks. The FortiASIC-TP2 processor handles all Layer 3, 4 and 7 traffic types, speeding detection and mitigation performance resulting in the lowest latency in the industry.
FortiDDoS uses a 100% heuristic/behavior-based method to identify threats compared to competitors that rely primarily on signature-based matching. Instead of using pre-defined signatures to identify attack patterns, FortiDDoS builds a baseline of normal activity and then monitors traffic against it. Should an attack begin, FortiDDoS sees this as an anomaly and then immediately takes action to mitigate it. You’re protected from known attacks and from the unknown “zero-day” attacks as FortiDDoS doesn’t need to wait for a signature file to be updated.
Advanced DDoS Protection for Enterprise Datacenters
- 100% hardware-based Layer 3, 4 and 7 DDoS protection provides fast identification and mitigation of attacks.
- Advanced connectivity with up to 16x GE or 18x 10 GE. Built-in bypass on most models.
- Behavior-based DDoS protection reacts to any threat without the need for signature files.
- Up to 36 Gbps throughput with bidirectional attack mitigation.
- Massively parallel single-pass architecture monitors hundreds of thousands of parameters simultaneously for complete Layer 3, 4, and 7 DDoS attack protection in a single appliance.
- Advanced suite of DNS DDoS Mitigation features.
- Continuous threat evaluation minimizes risk of “false positive” detections.
- Easy to deploy and manage with intuitive GUI and comprehensive reporting and analysis tools.
- Hybrid On-premise/Cloud Mitigation Option available
- FortiDDoS Cloud Monitoring service for visualization of attack impact and services availability
FortiDDoS also handles attack mitigation differently than other solutions. In other DDoS attack mitigation appliances, once an attack starts, it’s 100% blocked until the threat is over. If an event is mistakenly matched to a signature creating a “false positive”, then all traffic comes to a halt, requiring intervention. FortiDDoS uses a more surgical approach by monitoring normal traffic and then using a reputation penalty scoring system, to rate IP addresses that are “good” and others that are causing the problem.
FortiDDoS blocks the offending IP addresses then repeatedly reevaluates the attack at user defined periods (every 15 seconds by default). If the offending IP addresses continue to be a persistent threat for each of these reevaluation periods, their reputation penalty score will increase and will eventually be blacklisted once they hit a user-defined threshold.
Easy to Set Up and Manage
FortiDDoS starts working “out-of-the-box” while its automated learning tools create a baseline of your application traffic patterns. Whether you use default or learned thresholds, FortiDDoS automatically defends you from DDoS attacks, saving your team hours configuring options, tuning profiles, analyzing reports or waiting for signature updates.
Included real-time reporting and dashboards give you the tools you need to review attacks and threats to your services. You can run reports as you need them or schedule them to be delivered to you on a regular basis. Dashboards allow you to view and understand attack trends in an easy-to-use single screen layout. Whether it’s general status reporting or in-depth granular attack analysis, FortiDDoS provides detailed information on service level attacks and mitigation responses for specific events or over periods of time.
Flexible Defensive Mechanisms
FortiDDoS protects against every DDoS attack including Bulk Volumetric, Layer 7 Application, and SSL/HTTPS attacks. From the oldest trick in the book to the latest in advanced servicelevel attacks, FortiDDoS has you covered.
Bulk Volumetric Attacks were the first DDoS attack types and continue to pose significant threats today. While ISPs may prevent simple attacks of this type, the attacks are increasingly used to mask more complex application-level attack methods. The easiest way to deal with these types of threats is to simply block all traffic until the attack stops. The FortiDDoS IP Reputation scoring system continues to let “good” traffic in while mitigating IP addresses that are causing the problem. This process not only provides the protection you need, but also minimizes the effects of a “false positive” match from halting good client traffic.
Layer 7 Targeted Attacks are the fastest growing source of DDoS attacks. They attempt to exploit vulnerabilities within a service to exhaust its resources rendering it unavailable. Usually these types of attacks are embedded in Bulk Volumetric Attacks, however they can occur separately. As these types of attacks require considerably less bandwidth to deny service, they are more difficult to detect and regularly pass from ISPs directly to your network. All Layer 7 targeted attacks, large or small, will trigger changes at the service level that will be identified by the FortiDDoS behavioral analysis engine and mitigated.
SSL-Based Attacks use SSL-based encryption methods to hide the content of the attack packets. Additionally, the encryption methods employed will often mean that there are far less resources available that need to be exhausted. Most signature-based solutions require decryption of the traffic to perform matching against known attack profiles. With a behavioral system such as FortiDDoS, these attacks are detected without decryption as they will cause a change in behavior. This change can then be compared with normal behavior and an understanding of the resources available. When the relevant resources become threatened, FortiDDoS responds to the attack with the correct mitigation.
DNS-based attacks target authoritative and recursive DNS servers. Enterprises and Carriers that host DNS servers are at risk from DDoS attacks that specifically target these resources by exploiting weaknesses in the way DNS servers handle requests and traffic. FortiDDoS is the only DDoS mitigation platform that inspects 100% of all DNS traffic to protect against the all types of DDoS attacks directed at DNS servers, including DNS reflection/Response floods, NXdomain, Query floods, and DNS header anomalies. Advanced DNS Protection is available on most FortiDDoS models. Please check the Product Specifications table for more information.
Hybrid On-premise/Cloud DDoS Mitigation
While FortiDDoS can mitigate any DDoS attack to the limit of the incoming bandwidth available, it is possible that an attacker can overwhelm incoming link(s) or upstream resources. Using a cloud-based mitigation service in combination with FortiDDoS provides hybrid solution to mitigate most DDoS threats. When FortiDDoS detects an attack that exceeds a user-defined threshold on the Internet link(s), it will trigger an alert for the cloud-service provider to evaluate, divert the traffic and mitigate the attack upstream. Currently FortiDDoS fully supports the Verisign OpenHybrid™ DDoS Protection Service.
FortiDDoS on-premise appliances in enterprise data centers can also collaborate directly with high capacity FortiDDoS models in the service provider network using the cloud-signaling technology.
FortiDDoS Cloud Monitoring Service
Visibility of the impact of attacks is an essential part of the DDoS mitigation strategy for IT staff. FortiDDoS Cloud Monitoring service reports on network and server health from our 10 cloud sites. Inexpensive local reporting monitors add reporting from specific customer sites or for outbound services to cloud assets, allowing single-pane-of-glass network health reporting for both inbound and outbound clients.
Key Features and Benefits |
100% Behavioral-based Detection |
FortiDDoS doesn’t rely on signature files that need to be updated with the latest threats so you’re protected from both known and unknown “zero-day” attacks. |
100% Hardware-based DDoS Protection |
The FortiASIC-TP2 transaction processor provides bi-directional detection and mitigation of Layer 2, 3 and 7 DDoS attacks for industry-leading performance. |
Continuous Attack Evaluation |
Minimizes the risk of “false positive” detection by reevaluating the attack to ensure that “good” traffic isn’t disrupted. |
Congestion Resistant |
With up to 24 Gbps of throughput, FortiDDoS won’t easily be overwhelmed by high-volume DDoS attacks. |
Automated Learning Process |
With minimal configuration, FortiDDoS will automatically build normal traffic and resources behavior profiles saving you time and IT management resources. |
Multiple Attack Protection |
By understanding behaviors FortiDDoS can detect any DDoS attack from basic Bulk Volumetric to sophisticated Layer 7 SSL-based attacks without the need to decrypt traffic. |
Comprehensive Reporting Capabilities |
Real-time and historic reports provide granular visibility for network and protocol layers. |
Dashboard view of status and events