| Rackspace
Launches Three-Tiered Security Service to Mitigate Denial
of Service Attacks [25th August 2003]
SAN ANTONIO, Aug 25, 2003 (BUSINESS
WIRE) -- Rackspace Managed Hosting, the leading managed
hosting provider, today announced PrevenTier(TM), a
three-tiered security system to help identify and mitigate
the effects of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
attacks. Rackspace is the first hosting provider to
offer a combination of its own proprietary technologies
and commercially available solutions from Arbor Networks
and Riverhead Networks to quickly and accurately locate
suspect traffic at the advent of an attack and sanitize
it without disrupting the free flow of legitimate network
traffic, while dramatically shortening detection and
resolution times.
"Enterprises have a right to expect
that service providers protect them from DDoS attacks
when they contract for high-network availability,"
said Eric Ogren, senior analyst at the Yankee Group.
"Rackspace is the first Tier 1 service provider
to utilize best-of-breed solutions from Arbor and Riverhead
to deliver comprehensive DDoS protection that not only
detects and removes malicious traffic, but also allows
legitimate traffic to pass -- an essential component
to preserving business continuity for customers of their
hosting service."
PrevenTier begins by monitoring all
traffic entering Rackspace's network through a proprietary,
patent-pending intrusion detection technology. Capable
of handling over 30 million packets per second, PrevenTier
examines each incoming packet for signs of malicious
activity, utilizing statistics to perform granular traffic
analysis of source and destination IP addresses, protocol
information, flow information and traffic volume.
PrevenTier's second layer of protection
uses Arbor Network's Peakflow DDoS solution to search
for anomalies on a network-wide basis. Peakflow analyzes
the customer's traffic patterns to learn about normal
network behavior and creates a dynamic profile of the
server's usual traffic. PrevenTier then monitors the
traffic to the server, searching for traffic that deviates
from this baseline. In the event of a DDoS attack, Peakflow
flags the anomaly within seconds, provides detailed
reporting on the attack, and identifies the appropriate
corrective action.
Finally, if malicious activity is detected,
PrevenTier then reroutes suspect traffic through the
mitigation engine, the Riverhead Guard, where individual
traffic flows are subjected to a Multi-Verification
Process that includes anti-spoofing, anomaly detection
and dynamic filtering to accurately identify and block
malicious packets. Legitimate traffic is forwarded to
the destination server, which, unaffected by the ongoing
DDoS attack, continues serving clients.
Rampid Web Designs, based in Stratham,
New Hampshire, develops highly trafficked online dating
and entertainment Web sites. Given the high visibility
of their sites, they are often a target for DDoS attacks.
"We chose to leave our former service
provider because they could not help us withstand multiple
DDoS attacks, causing significant downtime for our sites,"
said Peter Simard, partner, Rampid Web Designs. "Then
we moved to Rackspace and began beta testing PrevenTier.
The results were remarkable! Rackspace was alerted to
each attack and within minutes successfully blocked
and removed the malicious traffic. Rackspace was able
to react so quickly that we did not even realize we
had been attacked."
"During the past 12 months, while
beta testing the product, Rackspace has had over 95
percent success in blocking DDoS attacks while allowing
legitimate traffic to reach the protected server,"
said Paul Froutan, vice president of engineering, Rackspace
Managed Hosting. "PrevenTier is a critical component
to our comprehensive security offering, enabling Rackspace
to deliver maximum uptime to our customers' business
critical applications."
PrevenTier is a new addition to Rackspace's
suite of security services, which focuses on customer
application uptime. Rackspace offers customers availability
& performance monitoring, managed firewalls and
proactive patching by certified level-three technicians
offering 24X7 Fanatical Support.
About Rackspace Managed Hosting
Rackspace Managed Hosting(TM) is a leading
provider of managed Web hosting solutions. Founded in
1998, Rackspace offers a wide range of managed services
for hosting platforms of all sizes and complexity, including
burstable connectivity, 99.999% uptime SLA, load balancing,
security and patching, advanced storage solutions and
disaster recovery. Rackspace has received numerous industry
awards for its brand of customer service, known as Fanatical
Support(TM), and was awarded the Frost & Sullivan
Customer Value Enhancement (CVE) Award in 2002 and 2003.
For more information, visit
www.rackspace.com,
or call 800-961-2888.
SOURCE: Rackspace Managed Hosting
Rackspace Managed Hosting, San Antonio
Annalie Drusch, 210-892-4000, ext. 1234
adrusch@rackspace.com
or
Bridgeman Communications for Rackspace
Christine Cayer, 617-742-7270
christine@bridgeman.com |
