Nexusguard Case Study: Linkful Software Successfully Fends Off 72-Hour DDoS Attack
San Jose (PRWEB) September 20, 2013 -- In June of 2013, while providing services to an online gaming company, Linkful Software experienced its largest attack since its inception. Through a series of complex zero-day exploits, systems were damaged through specifically targeted vulnerabilities that were previously unknown to Linkful Software. The sophisticated attack bypassed detection from mitigation services, as they contained no recognizable signatures. For more than 72 hours, Linkful Software suffered a wide range of damages—not just service outages, but also infrastructure damage.
The attacker used a combination of zombie, bandwidth, and DNS attacks over the course of several days. Zombie attacks flooded servers, using networks of bots to generate a 130-fold increase in connections, preventing legitimate users from accessing its services. Bandwidth attacks then flooded servers with malicious traffic—which peaked at 10 Gbps—in the form of ICMP, UDP, and TCP SYN floods. These rendered services unavailable to its users, which if not fixed promptly, would drastically hurt the company’s business operations and reputation as a leader in premium, reliable IT services. “We used to think that we could handle DDoS attacks ourselves using appliances and evasive tactics. This incident has taught us the reality of that; attackers nowadays are far more advanced than a year ago,” said Director Howard Lim.
Linkful Software’s reached out to Nexusguard and explained their business goals and security needs, and Nexusguard moved quickly in responding to the attacks and bringing systems back to normal. To thoroughly and swiftly eliminate the attacks or any possible threat of an attack, Nexusguard worked closely with Linkful Software to create a highly customized security plan tailored for their urgent needs. Zero-day emergency response kicked in immediately, activating emergency measures to maintain partial service for Linkful Software while Nexusguard’s Security Operation Center (SOC) and R&D team engaged in a persistent battle with the attacker.
Just when Linkful Software believed it was well on its way to recovering from the attacks and restoring normal operations, circumstances became more complicated. More determined than ever to bring down their services, the attacker shifted focus to a component of the company’s network that was not under Nexusguard’s protection—DNS services. Linkful Software’s DNS services were hosted by a third-party provider who was not able to find a viable solution to mitigate the attacks. After learning of the situation, Nexusguard quickly set up emergency DNS protection with the third-party provider and ensure that every aspect of Linkful Software would be well protected. “When the attackers switched their focus and brought down our third-party DNS provider, Nexusguard provided the solution to that without hesitation or financial commitment from us,” Lim said.
Nexusguard’s quick response team and highly customized security strategy kept damages to a minimum and allowed Linkful Software to resume normal business activity. Under Nexusguard’s cutting-edge protection, Linkful Software is once again providing clients with the reliable uninterrupted services that have made it a leader in the IT industry. Lim was impressed by Nexusguard’s commitment to mitigating the attack, saying, “Their spirit of ‘customer-first’ has made an impression on me. Thanks to Nexusguard’s speedy delivery, we were able to recover from the advanced attacks that took down our sites.”
What happened to Linkful Software could have happened to any organizations. Even when proper defense mechanisms and mitigation strategies are in place, the risk of being outsmarted by an attacker is almost impossible to eliminate. As DDoS attacks grow increasingly sophisticated, it is vital to have security experts standing by 24/7. Nexusguard’s team of experts provide quick response to attacks, as well as highly customized security plans ranging from short-term mitigation to long-term defense strategies. More importantly, Nexusguard stays with you every step of the way until the DDoS attack is all threats have been neutralized, even when grey areas or third-party providers are involved.
About Linkful Software Partners
Founded in 2012, Linkful Software provides its clients with state-of-the-art IT services, ranging from customized software development to offshore software development. The company provides premium services at affordable prices, specializing in software development, ecommerce application development, web-portal design and development, content management solutions, and database development.
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About Nexusguard
Nexusguard is an industry-leading Internet security service provider, proven by years of experience mitigating thousands of attacks per month. Established in 2008, Nexusguard continues to provide innovative end-to-end, cloud-based Internet security solutions. Aside from protecting clients against the ever-increasing and evolving multitude of Internet threats, Nexusguard also places a heavy emphasis on providing an excellent customer experience. Nexusguard is the only Internet security service provider to be awarded both the People Site Certification (PSC) and Customer Service Quality Standard (CSQS) certification. For more information, please visit http://www.nexusguard.com.
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Benjamin Yip - Marketing Manager
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Ivy Wu - Marketing & PR Executive
+886-2-2659-8958
contact(at)nexusguard(dot)com
Ivy Wu, Nexusguard Limited, http://www.nexusguard.com, +886 226598958 5124, [email protected]
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