Protecting gaming customers from DDoS attacks

LAD faced the same challenge many hosting providers of scale encounter – if one of its customers was targeted by a significant DDoS attack, this would affect network connectivity for all customers. Prior to Corero, the company fended off attacks manually via homegrown solutions. However, it was unable to effectively stop all attacks, which resulted in service outages. Because LAD is committed to providing customers with 100 percent availability, 24x7, the company initiated a search for a dedicated DDoS solution that could protect its systems and customers while under duress from attacks – leading them to Corero.

“We were trying to mitigate the attacks on our own, but it wasn't working very well,” said Robby Hicks, President and CEO, Los Angeles Dedicated. “Our previous tool wasn't really able to handle any high packet per second attacks, or even detect the attacks very quickly. By the time the servers would detect an attack, the lines would already be flooded so it would be way too late.”

The SmartWall TDS is an intelligent, purpose-built DDoS protection appliance that inspects traffic, detects threats and blocks attacks in real-time. It’s optimized to meet the needs of hosting providers and is deployed at the network edge to protect their business and that of their customers. SmartWall TDS is capable of mitigating a wide range of DDoS attacks while maintaining full service connectivity and availability to avoid degrading the delivery of legitimate traffic. With Corero, LAD has been able to virtually eliminate the impact of even large scale DDoS attacks.

LAD also leverages Corero SecureWatch® Analytics for real-time visibility, reporting and analytics against DDoS attacks targeting its customers. While the SmartWall TDS automatically blocks attacks, SecureWatch Analytics, in this case, has been utilised to generate instantaneous email alerts when the attack hits a predetermined threshold. This provides full visibility about the DDoS attack landscape within the LAD environment to the LAD’s executives, allowing them to automatically block traffic going to that client or to selectively implement protections based on their customer’s service level agreement to limit the impact of an attack.

“I call our Corero SmartWall TDS, 'The Beast' because it just handles everything we throw at it,” continued Hicks. “We haven't had any downtime since we installed this device. We have pretty much eliminated the DDoS problem for our company."

“The gaming industry is one of the most targeted by DDoS attacks, to the point that many hosting providers find themselves unable to technically and cost-effectively support the needs of these customers,” said Dave Larson, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Product, Corero Network Security. “Los Angeles Dedicated is really taking an innovative approach by proactively deploying a solution that eliminates the impact of DDoS attacks to its systems and its customers. It should serve as an example to many of its peers looking to provide their hosting customers with the most reliable service possible – even when faced with tireless and escalating attacks.”