Outages from denial‑of‑service events are costly. The solution is a layered defense: edge filtering, intelligent routing, origin rate‑limits, and an application firewall that understands your traffic patterns.
Table of Contents
- Common attack types
- Mitigation stack for India
- Reference architecture
- Buyer’s checklist
- How to test protection safely
- FAQs
1) Common attack types
| Vector | Layer | Typical symptom |
|---|---|---|
| SYN/UDP floods | L3/L4 | Link saturation, high packet loss |
| HTTP request floods | L7 | High CPU, slow responses |
| Cache‑bypass patterns | L7 | CDN miss storms, origin overload |
| Botnets & scraper swarms | L7 | Spikes from rotating IP/ASNs |
2) Mitigation stack for India
- BGP anycast to absorb floods across regions
- Indian scrubbing centers to avoid overseas backhaul
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) with managed rule sets
- Rate limiting & challenge pages for suspicious spikes
- Bot management using device fingerprint & behavior
- Traffic analytics (ASNs, countries, paths, UA) for tuning
3) Reference architecture
- Anycast CDN/WAF in front → filters L3/4/7 anomalies
- Clean traffic to origin over shielded network
- Origin hardening: keep‑alive, connection limits, request caps
- Observability: real‑time logs, anomaly alerts, synthetic probes
Tip: Publish a lightweight service status page on a different provider/region so you can communicate during incidents.
4) Buyer’s checklist
| Capability | What to look for |
|---|---|
| L7 filtering | Rule‑based + behavioral with per‑route thresholds |
| Scrubbing geography | Presence in India + nearby regions |
| Real‑time visibility | Attack graphs, top IP/ASN, method, path |
| Fail‑open/close | Configurable policies to avoid lockouts |
| SLA | Clear commitments on mitigation time |
5) How to test protection safely
- Run scheduled load tests from Indian ISPs with approvals
- Use synthetic monitors to track p95 latency during events
- Simulate burst traffic to verify rate‑limits & challenge flows
- Review post‑event logs and tune allow/block lists
Stay online under pressure
Explore DDoS‑tolerant architecture options designed for India.
6) FAQs
Will a CDN alone stop Layer‑7 attacks?
A CDN helps, but you also need adaptive WAF rules, per‑route thresholds, and origin hardening to handle complex request floods.
What’s the difference between geo‑blocking and rate‑limiting?
Geo‑blocking denies entire regions; rate‑limiting controls volume per IP/ASN/path. Use both selectively based on traffic patterns.
Do I need anycast for small sites?
Anycast improves resilience by distributing load. Even small sites benefit during large volumetric events.