Nokia Unveils Advanced DDoS Countermeasures For Improved Protection Against Botnet And Application-level DDoS Attacks

Nokia announced an expanded set of Distributed Denial of Service mitigation capabilities of its Defender Mitigation System (7750 DMS-1) through advanced DDoS countermeasures. These countermeasures allow the DMS to meet the growing demands of communications service providers and large digital enterprises to fight the latest generations of DDoS attacks with improved efficiency and cost efficiency.

Over the last two years, DDoS attacks have become more frequent, sophisticated, and potent with many CSPs and enterprises registering over 100 attacks daily. In 2023, more than 60% of all DDoS attacks were botnet-based, posing great challenges for legacy DDoS solutions and systems to detect and mitigate them. In 2024, DDoS threats come in a variety of new disguises, including free web browsing proxies that can be used to orchestrate botnet DDoS attacks without the knowledge of end-users. The ever-changing DDoS threat landscape is driving the need to neutralize new generations of DDoS attacks with improved speed, efficiency, and precision.

A better approach to DDoS security is required to protect services and customers against a new scale of DDoS attacks (tens to hundreds of Gbps, occurring regularly), new levels of attack complexity (from many more sources to many more destinations and involving tens to hundreds of thousands of endpoints in case of botnet DDoS), and at a whole new level of concurrency (e.g., hundreds of simultaneous attacks).

The new release of 7750 DMS-1 delivers Advanced Countermeasures Engine (ACE) functionality with L4-L7 stateful inspection of IP packets, allowing 7750 DMS-1 to combat all types of DDoS attacks – from volumetric to botnet and application-layer attacks – with a new level of agility and cost efficiency. The ACE functionality on 7750 DMS-1 is a testament to Nokia’s commitment to innovation, further enhancing Nokia’s unique combination of AI-driven big data analytics in Deepfield Defender and advanced IP networking technology, including the Nokia state-of-the-art routers powered by FP5 silicon.

At the heart of the Nokia DDoS security solution is Deepfield Defender – an “all-seeing, all-knowing” AI-driven big data processing platform that analyzes network telemetry information obtained from the network and correlates it with the “security map of the internet,” the Deepfield Secure Genome® data feed. Using advanced AI/ML learning and algorithms, Defender makes real-time decisions about how to neutralize DDoS threats and attacks by activating mitigation on the network edge or a dedicated, next-generation mitigation platform, Defender Mitigation System (7750 DMS-1).

The Nokia 7750 DMS-1 boosts DDoS mitigation efficiency with an array of new features, such as a full global map of DDoS botnets, improved DNS server protection, packet validation, and selective geo-IP blocking. 7750 DMS-1 has been designed to address stringent network security requirements driven by both networking and security teams.

Grant Lenahan, Partner and Principal Analyst at Appledore Research, said: “Appledore has been convinced of the virtues of both Deepfield’s threat identification technology and the architectural benefits of the Nokia FP5-based solutions - both when used as appliances and as embedded functionality in routers. With advanced DDoS countermeasures on its 7750 Defender Mitigation System, Nokia further advanced its solution for dedicated DDoS mitigation with the addition of application-layer attack resolution parity to complement its FP5-based volumetric leadership. The solution’s expanded deployment footprint attests to this market success.”

Jeff Smith, Vice President and Head of the Deepfield Business Unit at Nokia, said: “The occurrences of DDoS attacks have increased exponentially, and they’ve become more complex and powerful. We now commonly see attacks peaking in hundreds of Gbps in our customers’ networks – they are no longer a rare occurrence. This is the new DDoS reality the world is facing. The 7750 DMS-1 with new advanced DDoS countermeasures that Nokia has announced today set new standards for accuracy, speed and mitigation for DDoS security. Our unique solution and product architecture will facilitate the integration of the Nokia DDoS security solution into multiple networking and security environments, and will help service providers and enterprises protect their infrastructure, services and customers with a new level of network security required in the era of 5G, IoT and cloud connectivity.”

Source: Nokia media announcement