Neustar, Inc. today announced the launch of SiteProtect, a cloud-based service for UltraDNS customers that brings a new level of security to online properties against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. SiteProtect allows customers’ Web infrastructure to operate normally under attack, thus avoiding downtime and the associated loss of potential revenue. According to Arbor Networks, Inc., from 2009 to 2010, the industry has seen the average size of these attacks double, further reinforcing the need for prevention and protection.

Combined with Neustar UltraDNS, SiteProtect arms customers with strong protection bundles that provide security for both domain name system (DNS) and Web traffic. When a DDoS attack hits, SiteProtect is activated via a simple DNS change in the UltraDNS Management Portal, also accessible via a mobile application. The customers’ traffic is routed to the cloud-based traffic scrubbing centers where legitimate traffic is forwarded on while the attack traffic is contained. SiteProtect only charges a per incident fee beyond the monthly subscription and does not charge based on the size of an attack.

“A Web-facing business is proverbially faced with a ‘pay me now or pay me later’ decision,” said Michael Suby, an industry analyst and Director at Stratecast. “Taking steps to fight a DDoS attack before one occurs—pay me now—we view as the best and prudent choice.”

DDoS attacks are increasingly being used as a form of online protest. In December of 2010, the industry experienced pro-WikiLeaks attacks that targeted Visa and MasterCard. The explosive growth of social media channels provides fertile ground to solicit support for such online attacks for political or criminal purposes. Social media channels also help distribute increasingly simple online attack tools to a large numbers of recruits.

“The problem with other approaches to DDoS protection is that the network needs to take a hit before mitigation is started,” said Rick Rumbarger, Senior Director, Product Management, Neustar Internet Infrastructure Services. “With SiteProtect, the brunt of the attack is immediately shifted away from the client infrastructure and directed to our mitigation cloud service. By moving this service to the cloud, customers no longer have to buy and maintain large capacity infrastructure with its resulting capex expenses.”

Neustar has been a leader in DDoS mitigation for more than a decade. Hundreds of the largest Internet companies trust Neustar to protect their brand.

For additional information about Neustar’s new SiteProtect service, click here.