VeriSign Internet Defense Network is a network and hardware agnostic DDoS monitoring, mitigation and attribution service that detects and filters malicious traffic away from enterprise Web sites, helping maintain critical online applications and services. Leveraging VeriSign's industry-leading expertise in building and protecting large-scale infrastructures, VeriSign Internet Defense Network uses a proprietary filtering technology to stop a DDoS attack in the cloud before it reaches a customer's network. In addition, the service requires no hardware installation, making it more cost effective than premise-based solutions.

DDoS attacks have become a serious threat to enterprise online business continuity. What has traditionally been managed as an incremental part of bandwidth provisioning and cost has now evolved into a threat of growing scale and sophistication that warrants a dedicated review and mitigation approach. According to a study by Forrester Research, 74 percent of companies have experienced a DDoS attack of some kind. In addition, the study found that companies today do not have adequate protection against DDoS attacks, and many overprovision their bandwidth -- even by as much as 75 percent -- to account for unexpected traffic, including DDoS. This is a costly and ineffective method for DDoS protection, especially for those organizations that are likely targets for attacks.

"A number of recent high-profile attacks against the United States and South Korean governments and popular social networking sites have moved DDoS up the list of concerns for many CISOs," said Ken Silva, CTO of VeriSign. "Customers who attempt to overprovision their bandwidth are lulling themselves into a false sense of security against a real DDoS attack. Keeping bad traffic from reaching your doorstep requires a new cloud-based service such as VeriSign Internet Defense Network. The addition of a DDoS monitoring-only service will help many companies that depend on online commerce and communication by providing a means of watching for changes in Web site traffic that may indicate an impending attack."

Enterprises can use the DDoS monitoring-only service to enable identification of unusual site traffic patterns that may represent an oncoming attack -- with easy cross-over to mitigation service if needed.