Prolexic Releases DNS Reflection Attack White Paper

HOLLYWOOD, FL – Prolexic, the global leader in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection services, announced today that it has released the first of several white papers about Distributed Reflection Denial of Service (DrDoS) attacks. DrDoS attacks, an attack method which has been used for more than a decade, have recently surged in popularity across a broad range of industries.

In this white paper, prepared by the Prolexic Security Engineering and Response Team (PLXsert) discusses and analyzes DNS Reflection attacks. The DNS Reflection DrDoS technique exploits security weaknesses in the Domain Name System (DNS) Internet protocol, an important Internet feature that allows the public to type in human-friendly domain names instead of numerical IP addresses to access websites.

In this type of attack, a cyberattacker leverages zombie computers in a botnet to send domain name requests to DNS servers in a way that causes DNS servers to send a flood of responses to a targeted domain. This kind of DrDoS attack can overwhelm and slow response times – or completely stop legitimate user access – and affects both the DNS servers and the targeted domain.

A DNS Reflection attack is relatively easy for cybercriminals to launch, and takes advantage of security loopholes in the DNS protocol, PLXsert warns. What's more, it is difficult to pinpoint the source of a reflected DDoS attack, offering anonymity to the attacker.

"DNS Reflection DrDoS attacks are an overlooked but dangerous DDoS attack method," said Stuart Scholly, Prolexic President. "Prolexic is releasing this white paper to help make DNS server administrators, IT administrators and business leaders aware of this potential security threat against their networks. In addition, the white paper can help victims understand the technical details of what took place, so they can more quickly mitigate these kinds of DDoS attacks in the future."

The DNS Reflection Attack white paper explains DNS and how an attacker exploits the protocol to cause an outage. The white paper is available free of charge on the website.

About the Prolexic Security Engineering & Response Team (PLXsert)
PLXsert monitors malicious cyber threats globally and analyzes DDoS attacks using proprietary techniques and equipment. Through data forensics and post attack analysis, PLXsert is able to build a global view of DDoS attacks, which is shared with customers. By identifying the sources and associated attributes of individual attacks, the PLXsert team helps organizations adopt best practices and make more informed, proactive decisions about DDoS threats.

Details of Prolexic's DDoS mitigation activities and insights into the latest tactics, types, targets and origins of global DDoS attacks are provided in quarterly reports published by the company. A complimentary copy of Prolexic's Q4 2012 Global DDoS Attack Report is available on the website.

About Prolexic
Prolexic is the world's largest, most trusted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation provider. Able to absorb the largest and most complex attacks ever launched, Prolexic restores mission-critical Internet-facing infrastructures for global enterprises and government agencies within minutes. Ten of the world's largest banks and the leading companies in e-Commerce, SaaS, payment processing, travel/hospitality, gaming and other at-risk industries rely on Prolexic to protect their businesses. Founded in 2003 as the world's first in- the-cloud DDoS mitigation platform, Prolexic is headquartered in Hollywood, Florida and has scrubbing centers located in the Americas, Europe and Asia. To learn more about how Prolexic can stop DDoS attacks and protect your business, please visit http://www.prolexic.com/, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ or follow @Prolexic on Twitter.