DDoS – Steady as a Rock

Nobody could have stopped the pandemonium over the Northern Rock crisis, but they could have stemmed the widespread panic from customers who experienced a DDoS-style attack when their website crashed. IT directors all over the country must have experienced a twinge of sympathy when they heard the crisis-hit Northern Rock’s website had crashed. It went down in the same way it would have if it was the victim of a DDoS attack. But it wasn’t a malicious hacker but a deluge of panicked customers desperately trying to draw out their savings that brought the site to its knees.

DDoS attacks and legitimate traffic
With the right security precautions, Northern Rock could have been able to distinguish between customers and non-customers and kept their web site active during the crisis. Such a step would have helped when it came to handling the widespread panic and frustration that in some cases erupted into violence. IT security experts that specialise in stopping DDoS attacks can similarly stop legitimate surges in traffic from overwhelming a website.

Banks in the digital age
Banks, including Northern Rock, spend millions on their internet banking, ensuring their sites are secure and functional. But by not investing money in anti-DDoS resources, it can be devastating. Well-supported IT systems such as Northern Rock’s shouldn’t crash at all. It may be difficult to stop computers collapsing under a deluge of unexpected traffic, but it’s not impossible. DDoS attacks are becoming more commonplace as acts of industrial sabotage, as such, there is dedicated IT security available that can handle such deluges.

DDoS damage
The damage to a bank’s reputation if its website goes down can be immense. And for Northern Rock it happened at the worst moment – when they were desperately trying to bolster consumer confidence. One IT expert told the BBC that banks simply did not take the DDoS threat seriously enough: “One of the root problems in many banks is that the business people who run the bank do not understand computers…Some senior banking executive even take a Luddite pride in knowing nothing about computers.”

DDoS protection – a priority
A bank’s website going down because of a DDoS attack or a Northern Rock style deluge can have disastrous financial and PR implications. Every chief executive should have an answer to the question, what happens if we are hit by an unsuspected increase in our normal customer volume as a matter of urgency.
The frustration felt by many customers unable to log on to the website could have triggered the threats of violence frustrated customers directed towards Northern Rock staff. The huge panic for staff and customers alike could have been avoided if the bank had implemented appropriate DDoS protection. The incident will no doubt make all bank executives take notice of how to make online banking safer in a digital age.

Webscreen is an IT network security technology that is designed to protect Web servers and other network appliances from a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). A DDoS attack is a deliberate attempt (malicious) to stop a Web site from working by flooding it with thousands or simultaneous connections. This is usually done for financial gain but can be for political or commercial reasons. Webscreen's unique Guarantee of Service (GoS) technology not only mitigates the impact of denial of service (DDoS) attacks but enables IT managers to maintain access for critical users and priority customers during any high level network activity period. Including a range of network optimisation and monitoring tools, Webscreen helps deliver maximum performance from network infrastructure resources. Find out more, contact Webscreen call 0870 3890022.