Prolexic Mitigates DDoS Attacks Against Spafinder.com

According to a recent announcement made by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service provider Prolexic Technologies, it recently mitigated randomized combination Layer 4 and Layer 7 DDoS attacks against Spafinder.com, a global online resource for spa and wellness services and products.

Due to the attack, nearly 30,000 customers were not able to access Spafinder.com. Even the agents at the company’s 24/7 call center were unable to access the site to provide answers and assistance with customer inquiries.

With the use of DDoS mitigation tools, Prolexic’s technicians were quickly able to identify the type of attack and the IP addresses of the top ten sources. The Security Operations Center staff monitored attack signatures and other characteristics in real time and developed countermeasures to block moves by the attackers.

“We never really expected to be the target of a DDoS attack,” said Pete Ellis, chairman and chief executive officer, Spafinder, in a statement. “However, we had a DDoS mitigation solution in place from a hosting company just in case. Unfortunately, that solution couldn’t stop the attack. I was referred to Prolexic and they had our site back up that evening and fully operational by early the next morning.”

“As we deployed our mitigation tools and real-time monitoring, the attack would trickle down to being almost non-existent, and then another wave of attacks with a different type of signature would start,” said Neal Quinn, vice president of operations at Prolexic. “The attack actually spanned over two days after we began mitigation because the attackers changed the signature every time they realized we were successfully blocking the attack. Finally, they gave up after they realized that Prolexic could identify and block whatever they tried.”

“With fourth quarter holiday sales season approaching, Spafinder is gearing up for heavy site traffic that will generate a large percentage of our yearly revenues,” Ellis said. “A DDoS attack would be devastating during that time, but we are well protected against all threats with Prolexic. With the proliferation of DDoS attacks on all types of companies becoming more serious, I would recommend the Prolexic mitigation solution to any company that has any type of e-Commerce platform.”

In other news, Prolexic Technologies recently announced that it expects cyber attacks against companies and governments to increase in the near-term as a result of recent global social unrest.

Rahul Arora is a TMCnet contributor. He has worked as an editor and freelance writer for several reputed organizations in India. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell