Arbor Networks, Inc., a leading provider of security and network management solutions for enterprises data centers and carrier networks, announced today that Neustar has become the first “Select” level service provider to operationalize Arbor’s Cloud Signaling capability in a service offering. The Cloud Signaling Coalition (CSC) is an innovative partnership between service providers, data center operators and enterprises with the mission to ensure the availability of their network infrastructure and speed time-to-mitigation for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

CSC Select level providers have invested in the skills, infrastructure and commercial capabilities necessary to offer their customers a higher level of DDoS mitigation protection. CSC Select providers are audited by Arbor Networks to ensure they meet the following criteria:

1. Have a commercial in-cloud DDoS protection service that can accept cloud signals from Arbor’s Pravail Availability Protection System (APS).
2. Maintain a 24x7 on-site security operations center (SOC) that is fully staffed with Arbor trained personnel.
3. Have an in-cloud DDoS mitigation service that provides a minimum of 40 Gbps of mitigation capacity.

CSC Select providers offer some of the most comprehensive DDoS protection services in the industry today, and are backed by the expertise of Arbor products and services.

Neustar’s SiteProtect cloud-based DDoS mitigation service allows customers’ Internet connected infrastructure to operate normally while under attack, thus avoiding downtime and the associated loss of potential revenue. Combined with Neustar’s UltraDNS, SiteProtect arms customers with strong protection bundles that provide security for their entire Internet connected infrastructure (e.g. DNS, Web servers, FTP servers, APIs, databases, etc.). When a DDoS attack hits, SiteProtect is activated via a simple DNS or BGP change to route the customers’ traffic to the cloud-based Arbor Networks powered, traffic scrubbing centers where legitimate traffic is forwarded on and 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.

“Neustar and Arbor have a long history of collaboration in the area of cloud-based DDoS mitigation. As threats proliferate, hundreds of the largest Internet companies trust Neustar to protect their brands. They look to us for continuous innovation and state-of-the-art solutions to protect their networks from today’s dynamic threats,” said Alex Berry, senior vice president Enterprise Services, Neustar.

“As distributed DDoS attacks escalate in size and complexity, their detection and mitigation requires the collaboration of all stakeholders—from the customer premise to the service provider cloud. The Cloud Signaling Coalition from Arbor Networks enables this collaboration. It provides an infrastructure that facilitates local and upstream mitigation of edge-based, application-layer DDoS attacks as well as cloud-based, volumetric DDoS attacks in an automated and real-time manner,” said Arbor Networks president Colin Doherty.

Cloud Signaling: A Faster, Automated Way to Provide Comprehensive DDoS Mitigation

At the heart of Cloud Signaling are Arbor Networks Peakflow® SP and Pravail™ Availability Protection System solutions. Arbor Peakflow SP powers many of the world’s leading cloud-based DDoS managed security services, while Arbor’s Pravail APS is an on-premise device that protects the Internet Data Center edge against threats to availability—specifically, protection against application-layer DDoS attacks. Cloud Signaling is an efficient and integrated way of bridging the enterprise data center to the service provider cloud. Cloud Signaling connects the on-premise Pravail APS device with the cloud-based Peakflow SP solution, helping to ensure the availability of data center infrastructures and speed time-to-mitigation for DDoS attacks. Arbor believes that the best way for enterprises, data centers and Cloud operators to have optimal protection against DDoS attacks is through this combination of on-premise and in-cloud protection.

Cloud Signaling Coalition: How does it work?

When an enterprise or data center operator discovers that they are under a service-disrupting DDoS attack, they can choose to mitigate the attack in the cloud by triggering a signal to upstream infrastructure of their service provider’s network. A volumetric DDoS attack congesting the upstream links would immediately diminish or disappear altogether from the data center’s access links, and service availability would be protected. Participation in the Cloud Signaling Coalition allows the service provider to provide differentiated managed security services, reduce the time to mitigation and increase the effectiveness of the response against DDoS threats, thus saving the customer from major operational expenses and preserving their reputation. Enterprise and data center customers also benefit from real time monitoring of the attack mitigation, as well as granular post mortem reports with details of the attack and the steps taken by the service provider to mitigate the attack, keeping them in control and in command of the event.

About Arbor Networks

Arbor Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of network security and management solutions for next-generation data centers and carrier networks, including the vast majority of the world’s Internet service providers and many of the largest enterprise networks in use today. Arbor’s proven network security and management solutions help grow and protect customer networks, businesses and brands. Through its unparalleled, privileged relationships with worldwide service providers and global network operators, Arbor provides unequalled insight into and perspective on Internet security and traffic trends via the ATLAS Active Threat Level Analysis System. Representing a unique collaborative effort with 100+ network operators across the globe, ATLAS enables the sharing of real-time security, traffic and routing information that informs numerous business decisions. For technical insight into the latest security threats and Internet traffic trends, please visit our website at www.arbornetworks.com and our blog at ddos.arbornetworks.com.