IntelliGuard unveils revolutionary DDoS defense that ensures network uptime and business continuity

IntelliGuard today announced the Australian release of its DPS appliances that defend against the largest and most sophisticated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The patented technology was developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne to protect online businesses and service providers from the disruption caused when these malicious traffic floods overwhelm Internet infrastructure.

The DPS appliances will be exhibited at CeBIT in Sydney from 20-22 May, at the Info-Security Conference in Hong Kong on 16 May, and with Austrade at the China International Software and Information Service Fair in Dalian, Mainland China from 17-22 June.

The Australian launch comes on the back of the appointment of resellers throughout Asia, and deployments with a number of the largest Chinese and Korean IDCs, Internet gaming companies, and video sharing websites.

DDoS attacks disrupt online services by overwhelming Internet communications infrastructure with floods of traffic that traditional security devices cannot block. These attacks have become a devastating and costly problem to online businesses and services.

“With currently available technology, Service Providers cannot provide the quality of service sought by customers”, notes IntelliGuard founder and CEO, Ken Baker. “Current defense products based on Firewall and IPS technology approach the DDoS problem from the wrong angle because attackers can easily craft attacks to avoid detection. Their approach in attempting to block the bad guys is no longer effective. We developed a way to learn the network’s legitimate users well enough to be able to identify and prioritize their traffic in the midst of any type of traffic flood.”

For service providers, this offers uninterrupted services, reduces infrastructure provisioning requirements by removing floods at the network edge, and provides the opportunity to attract and retain new customers while generating additional direct revenue from DDoS-protected bandwidth and hosting services.

For online businesses it ensures uninterrupted customer service during DDoS attacks or any excess traffic flood, and insurance against large revenue losses and damaged reputation caused by attacks.

Surging DDoS attacks in Asia attract major customers to IntelliGuard

Shanda Networks, China’s largest Internet Gaming Company, has deployed IntelliGuard’s DPS to successfully defeat a barrage of DDoS attacks on its gaming servers in Shanghai. Systems have also been deployed at 21Vianet - China’s largest IDC, and YouKu - China’s YouTube-like video sharing website. Tier 1 Telcos are also now looking to provide DDoS protection for their customers. Mr He Xiaofeng, China Telecom’s manager of Managed Security, says “I would like to re-state my interest in evaluating IntelliGuard’s product due to its unique algorithm and architecture. Our investment for anti-DDoS hardware for the next 3 years is around USD$20m.”

Stephen Kim, director of network security company Mujin System in Korea says “There are many DDoS attacks in Korea. Inames, a hosting company in Seoul is installing IntelliGuard’s DPS to provide protection to its customers as a managed service. KIDC, one of the largest IDC’s in Korea, has deployed IntelliGuard’s DPS and requested enhanced features that only IntelliGuard can provide”.

Genuine protection for all parts of a network

To enable Service Providers to protect their own networks and those of their customers, IntelliGuard’s DPS employs a unique “Learn-Rank-Protect” strategy that profiles and ranks by legitimacy every client that interacts with a protected network, and only discards the least legitimate traffic during DDoS attacks when traffic rates need to be reduced.

As IntelliGuard Chief Research Scientist, Dr Tao Peng explains, “Attackers can circumvent traditional anomaly detection and signature-based devices by sending traffic that is outwardly indistinguishable from legitimate traffic, and adjusting their attacks to get around filtering rules. Effective decisions about which traffic to pass need to be based on information that attackers don’t have and cannot easily guess. The only data that fits this description is detailed historical knowledge of a particular network’s regular clients.”

To protect each part of a network, IntelliGuard’s DPS incorporates a novel Multi-Level Traffic Management system that configures traffic limits and guarantees to manage traffic rates for each part of a network. This enables an IntelliGuard DPS deployed at the network edge to independently protect every component of a complex network, from large links all the way down to individual services running on a single machine.

According to IntelliGuard Chief Technical Officer Dr David Powell, “Multi-level traffic management is the only way to protect vulnerable low bandwidth services. Attackers can target anything from upstream routers, a business’ downlink, firewall, IPS, web server process, network card, operating system and TCP/IP stack. Each component is vulnerable and handles different traffic rates, so each therefore needs to be independently protected”.

Availability and pricing

The IntelliGuard DPS appliances are available from prices starting at $75,000 for 1Gbps models. For more information, please visit www.IntelliGuardit.net

Reseller and Sales enquiries email sales@IntelliGuardit.net

About IntelliGuard

IntelliGuard is the leading provider of DDoS protection systems. The DPS series provides comprehensive DDoS protection, while the complementary Reporting Server provides full-featured reporting for historical network views of traffic flows and incidents. IntelliGuard is a VC-backed privately held company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Korea.