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Network and Cybersecurity Professionals Must Work Together to Defend Against DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are now one of the most common cyber threats, for organizations of all sizes.  IT professionals are increasingly aware of this growing problem. However, when it comes to making sure that their organization has adequate DDoS defenses in place, there can be confusion around which department bears that responsibility: security or networking. The answer should be both and this ambiguity is a real problem. Imagine, if each department wrongly assumes that the other is handling it, their organization’s DDoS defenses may be insufficient, outdated or, worst-case, non-existent!

Most larger organizations should, in theory, have sufficient staffing, governance rules, and expertise to avoid this confusion (despite the ongoing shortage of cybersecurity talent). In smaller organizations, IT staff may be responsible for cybersecurity and networking, increasing the risk of gaps in security defenses. Although, their posture should be improved if they outsource their security needs to a Managed Security Service Provider.

Generally speaking, networking and security professionals select hardware and software solutions to ensure availability and confidentiality of their network and data resources; typically including firewalls, endpoint software, and remote access VPNs, to protect their organization’s infrastructure and ensure business continuity. Cybersecurity professionals are on a never-ending mission to protect their organization’s intellectual property and customer data against the constantly evolving threat landscape.

From one perspective, DDoS attacks may be considered a networking problem, because they impact the uptime and availability of business applications, services, and websites, as a result of their ability to easily overwhelm unprotected networking devices and servers. However, from the other perspective DDoS attacks are a security problem, partly because threat actors could use a DDoS attack as a distraction tactic, while conducting other nefarious activities. While attempts are made to deal with the DDoS traffic, the threat actors could be scanning the network for vulnerabilities for future attacks or installing malware or steal data.

With this in mind, it’s easy to understand how the deployment of proper DDoS defenses can fall through the cracks. In reality, both networking and security groups should have a vested interest in warding off DDoS. The best and most effective way to solve the problem is by combining the perspectives of both departments, with their complementary knowledge and skill sets. Ultimately, networking and cybersecurity professionals should work hand-in-hand to ensure effective DDoS mitigation.

For over a decade, Corero has been providing state-of-the-art, highly-effective, real-time automatic DDoS protection solutions for enterprise, hosting and service provider customers around the world. Our SmartWall® DDoS mitigation solutions protect on-premise, cloud, virtual and hybrid environments. For more on Corero’s flexible deployment models, click here.  If you’d like to learn more, please contact us.