Gaurav Mohan, VP of SAARC and Middle East at NETSCOUT in conversation with Security MEA talks about the rising incidents of DDoS attacks and how NETSCOUT is well prepared to counter this growing menace with the establishment of a new DDoS Scrubbing Center in Dubai for the Middle East region
How would you define the DDoS landscape in the Middle East? Which industry verticals are more vulnerable to DDoS attacks in the region?
The DDoS landscape in the Middle East reflects the global trend of evolving DDoS attacks targeting organizations across various industries. The region has witnessed a rise in both the frequency and sophistication of DDoS attacks in recent years.
The Middle East, with its growing digital economy and expanding online presence, has become an attractive target for cybercriminals seeking to disrupt businesses, compromise data, and cause financial losses. DDoS attacks have impacted organizations of all sizes in the Middle East, spanning various sectors and industries. From government entities and financial institutions to e-commerce platforms and critical infrastructure providers, no organization is immune to the threat. The primary objective of DDoS attacks is to disrupt normal operations by overwhelming network infrastructure, web servers, or specific online services, rendering them inaccessible to legitimate users.
NETSCOUT’s latest threat intelligence report found that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt were among the top countries targeted by population in the Middle East during the second half of 2022. The most common sectors targeted were wired telecommunications carriers, electronic shopping and mail-order houses, commercial banking, and computer storage device manufacturing. These attacks can have a significant impact on the businesses and individuals in these countries, causing widespread disruption and financial losses.
What kind of unique security challenges do enterprises face in the Middle East?
The digital landscape has transformed as businesses adopt digital technologies, cloud computing, and remote work environments for greater flexibility and scalability. However, this shift has introduced new security challenges due to increased adoption of cloud services, mobile and IoT devices, and DDoS attacks targeting mission-critical applications.
With organizations becoming more dependent on the internet and web-based applications and services, ensuring connectivity and access to enterprise networks has become more critical than ever. DDoS attacks pose a significant threat to business continuity, as they can cause costly downtime and lasting reputational damage.
These attacks target operations that organizations rely on for daily operations, such as email, salesforce automation, and CRM. Critical industries like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare have internal web properties that supply chain partners and other business stakeholders rely on for daily operations, making them prime targets for sophisticated cyber attackers.
What is a DDoS Scrubbing Center and how does it work?
A DDoS scrubbing center is a facility that is specifically designed to mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. When a DDoS attack is detected, the traffic from the attack is redirected to the scrubbing center, where it is analyzed and filtered. The malicious traffic is then blocked, while legitimate traffic is allowed to pass through.
A scrubbing center monitors network traffic for patterns and behavior, identifying attack vectors and diverting suspicious traffic for analysis and mitigation. Advanced filtering and inspection techniques differentiate between legitimate and malicious traffic, allowing legitimate traffic to be cleansed and forwarded to the protected network. Mitigation techniques are used to neutralize DDoS attacks, and once malicious traffic is filtered out, clean traffic is returned to the organization’s network infrastructure.
The below infographic explains how the Arbor Cloud Scrubbing Center operate. During a DDoS attack, all inbound traffic is routed to the nearest Arbor Cloud scrubbing center for analysis and mitigation. Clean traffic is then returned to the customer using GRE tunnels or direct connections from customer-selected scrubbing centers. The high-speed Arbor Cloud network backbone transports clean traffic from each scrubbing center to the center near the customer for direct connection.
By leveraging specialized hardware, software, and skilled security personnel, DDoS Scrubbing Centers provide a crucial layer of protection against DDoS attacks. They enable organizations to maintain the availability of their online services, protect their infrastructure, and ensure a smooth experience for legitimate users even during DDoS attack incidents.
What prompted NETSCOUT to deploy an Arbor Cloud DDoS Scrubbing Center in Dubai now and how is it going to help the regional enterprises?
We established UAE-based DDoS Scrubbing Center to address the unique cybersecurity challenges faced by organizations in the dynamic digital landscape. The center combines advanced technology and skilled professionals to intercept, analyze, and mitigate DDoS attacks in real-time, ensuring uninterrupted access to online resources and data security.
As part of NETSCOUT’s Arbor Cloud solution, our Scrubbing Center provides comprehensive cloud-based services for managing and mitigating DDoS attacks. It offers automated or on-demand protection against complex multi-vector attacks.
Our DDoS Scrubbing Center in Dubai reduces network latency for customers in the UAE and wider Middle East. This improves overall performance by eliminating the need for distant routing. The center also helps organizations meet compliance and regulatory requirements specific to the region, particularly in finance and government sectors. We remain committed to being a trusted partner for Middle Eastern businesses by providing enhanced cybersecurity, reduced latency, and compliance capabilities tailored to the region’s needs.
Now with DDoS Scrubbing Center established in the region, what is your roadmap for the region and what kind of growth are you expecting in next 12 months?
The DDoS mitigation market is expected to grow at 15-16% CAGR over the next 3 years. This growth is being driven by the increasing sophistication of DDoS attacks and the growing need for organizations to protect themselves from these attacks.
Arbor Cloud has the same capabilities across all 15 of its scrubbing centers. This means that the new scrubbing center in Dubai will benefit from the improvements made to the Arbor Cloud platform. The customer-facing web portal also continues to add more functionality to provide customers with better visibility into their Arbor Cloud configurations, mitigation events, and analytics. This way, local organizations can minimize the impact of DDoS attacks, ensuring seamless business operations. By bolstering our local presence, we’re committed to enhancing the security and efficiency of our customer’s online environments in the coming months.