Preventing Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) in Microgaming Casinos
Preventing DDoS attacks is an important issue for many websites including online gambling projects. That’s why, to provide the best service, safe for customers, it is crucial to implement necessary security measures (i.e. tools which help fend off the Distributed Denial-of-Service).
Microgaming couldn’t reach great success and popularity among web gamblers without a strong security system, which protects casinos running on its platforms. This company combines several preventing methods to enhance the firewall of all of its products and provides efficient defense policy for customers.
What is DDoS
The modern world cannot be imagined without computer technologies, but however, despite all of its advantages, there are some vulnerabilities that can affect many aspects of online human activities.
Cyber hacking is becoming more widespread each day, that’s why it is a must to be aware of aggressive methods (DDoS attacks). Almost any website, including gambling ones, can suffer from Distributed Denial of Services, which is caused by multiple harmful traffics from various sources simultaneously.
This cyber threat can result in a termination of the work of a particular website because of the overwhelming the servers with non-legitimate data floods. The purpose of such hacking assaults is blocking the access of users to the chosen web page. However, it might be just a distraction trick to hijack the personal info of customers, bank accounts and etc.
Types of Attacks
Moreover, the danger of such cyber threat is not limited by only one kind. There are several main types of DDoS assaults with various special subtypes. Therefore, to build a good protection, it is crucial to know what are they and how do they work. So we will provide our readers with useful information about every common form and describe in details their peculiarities.
Protocol
Hackers may use different protocols to launch the DDoS towards their victim. These attacks may contain SYN floods, Smurf programs, Ping of Death, fragmented packet assault and etc. Such type uses various vulnerabilities in Internet Protocol or Internet Control Message Protocols to consume the server resources and create a strong distress of the load balancers and firewalls, causing the crash of the targeted web page. It is measured in packets per seconds (PPS).
Volume Based
The volume based – which is measured in bits per second (BPS) – is a well-studied type of DDoS attack. This method exploits numerous techniques to create a massive pressure on the bandwidth of the targeted site by overwhelming it with a huge amount of data. Thus, it becomes unavailable for all users trying to access it. This method includes attacking with big volumes of UDP and ICMP traffic together with many others spoofed packets. Luckily, it is not difficult to spot such thread, as you can come across different specialized tools (there are even free versions of them) that can help to identify the floods.
Application Layer Attacks
The application layer attack is another kind of DDoS threats. When targeting a particular web application, it is capable of overloading a server by constantly sending a huge number of requests (that require some time to process and consume a lot of resources). These attacks are difficult to quickly detect, as they usually don’t use big volumes of data. This category includes such techniques as HTTP floods, SLowloris or RUDY, DNS query floods targeting Apache, Windows and Open BSD weak places.
DDoS Mitigation in Microgaming Casinos
This brand has built a good safety system that is implemented in soft distributed to the online gambling houses.
So to protect the casino websites, Microgaming uses various DDoS mitigation methods. Implementing specialized hardware, which can withstand the danger and keep the legitimate traffic passing through freely, is a necessary measure.
Mitigation performance includes distinguishing real user activity from bots, using special traffic filters, combining Microgaming Anti-DDoS technology with emergency response services and co-working with cloud mitigation services.
Anti-DDoS Technology Solutions
There are some methods that prove to be successful in fighting the cyber hacking. It is recommended to use these anti-DDoS technology solutions as:
- Increasing the speed of reaction response (preventing on the early stages may be easier and there will be less bad consequences);
- Launching Network Behavioral Analysis Technology (a tool that distinguishes automatic attack traffic from a legitimate one);
- Ceasing assault vectors (using special scans like the NBA or Database Consistency Scanner to ensure no hazard is overlooked);
- Enhancing the firewall with additional thread defense programs (like the Intrusion Prevention system).
When taking into account all the described options above, the chances of stopping the attack in time with a minimum loss are quite big.
Emergency Services
However, fighting DDoS can’t be successful using only various automatic computer programs. To have a good protection that will guarantee the security of the service, the online company should develop a strategy of fighting cyber hackers that will definitely include the work of an experienced team of computer engineers.
The best mitigation of such attacks is possible only with the help of professionals, who are well-educated about all DDoS peculiarities. That’s why, Microgaming has a Central Fraud and Collusion department (24/7 service with a team, which monitors all sent/received info to prevent possible hazards). Thus, it has created efficient emergency services by combining the work of people and computer technologies.