Why government departments need DDoS protection

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are becoming a major cyber threat to governments and businesses all over the world. According to recent statistics, the frequency, sophistication and severity of these attacks are increasing every year.

While there are various types of DDoS attacks, the basic principle is the same: false network traffic is used to overload a network, forcing it to deny access to legitimate users and eventually crash. Due to an overload of traffic across the servers, real users are unable to connect to the network, interact with the website, or communicate with the organisation online.

Internally, this has an impact on the business, as well as employees’ ability to access systems and provide information and services to customers. For a variety of reasons, public institutions are now being targeted.

Some cybercriminals are looking for a ransom, while others want to make a statement or exact revenge on a government institution. State-owned entities must be prepared for these threats and have systems in place to protect their IT networks and servers.

The outcome of a DDoS attack for governmental institutions

Without question, cyber attacks pose a severe threat to government institutions and state-owned entities. A single cyberattack on a financial institution, for example, could have consequences for dozens of linked corporations and banks.

Public healthcare institutions, transportation departments, law enforcement agencies and entire municipalities have all been targeted in the past. DDoS attacks have the potential to cripple these entities and those who rely on their services on a daily basis.

Additional security measures to complement DDoS protection

Public institutions should use various additional security measures to complement their cyber security. These should include a layered approach that targets three areas – monitoring, detection and prevention.

Monitoring – The best way to prevent cyber attacks is to constantly monitor your IT systems. This is best done through automated means, which gives public institutions complete network visibility and control.
Detection – Any good cyber security system should be able to automatically detect a variety of threats and alert IT managers immediately.
Prevention – The whole purpose of cyber security is to prevent attacks. This is the most important layer to consider, so these systems must be effective and readily available.

This three-layered approach will allow public institutions to develop a clear cyber security strategy and to deploy multiple controls at once. This will also ensure that each component at the various layers can have a failsafe or backup system in place. Here are some more cyber security measures to consider for government departments:

Create system backups regularly so that you can restore lost or compromised information immediately.
Make use of automated software to save time and resources.
Develop a continuity plan and incident response strategy for any cyber attacks.
Implement a firewall to monitor all incoming and outgoing network traffic.
Keep your security software up-to-date by running patching processes and upgrades.
Enable two-factor authentication on your network and computers.
Set up web content filtering to block access to certain domains or dangerous sites. This helps to reduce the possibility of phishing scams.
Use email filtering software to eradicate phishing emails and malware before any employees open them.
Train staff members to be aware of cyber security risks.

Like fire drills, staff training in the event of a cyber attack can drastically reduce the response time and damage done. If employees can react swiftly to any cyber threat, then the costs of such an attack will be minimised. Government departments need to adopt these policies to improve their cyber security.

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