Audra Business - The Savior from DDoS Attacks on SMBs

Prevent DDoS Attacks: Shield your business against debilitating DDoS attacks using Audra Business for robust defense and uninterrupted operations

Protect end-to-end: Embrace a hybrid solution with hardware firewall and AI-powered Audra Cloud, offering anomaly detection, traffic throttling, and real-time alerts

Secure Digital Future: Safeguard your business reputation, finances, and continuity by fortifying your digital infrastructure with Audra's advanced security measures.

One of the greatest fears that most technology dependent business owners have is waking up to a locked out system. Whether it’s your email systems, POS systems, inventorying systems, or even just your digital door lock - almost every system we use now lives on a digital backbone, making everything susceptible to hacking.

But don’t just take our word for it - take a look at the data:

• In 2021, over 60.14 million IoT attacks were detected and reported - Statista
• In 2022, that number almost doubled to 112.29 million attacks - Statista
• 56% of SMBs experienced malware attacks in 2022 - Kaspersky
• 45% of SMBs faced targeted social engineering and phishing attacks in 2022 - Kaspersky

Getting locked out of a digital system isn’t just an inconvenience any more, either. Oftentimes, losing access to your web based business equates to extended downtime for the overall business, resulting in financial losses, reputational damage, productivity and operational disruptions, and even legal or regulatory consequences.

As a small business, you can’t afford any of those problems, which is why taking immediate remedial steps isn’t an option but a priority.

What steps can you take to protect your business?

1. DDoS Mitigation Services

Imagine you're at a store, and suddenly hundreds of people rush in all at once, overwhelming the store's space and making it hard for anyone to move or buy things. A DDoS attack is like that, but in the online world. Instead of people, a huge number of computers flood a website or online service all at once, causing it to become slow or even crash. This makes it difficult for real users to use the website because it's overcrowded with fake "traffic" from these computers.

A DDoS mitigation service uses a four-step procedure to safeguard your online business against these "floods" of traffic: identifying abnormal traffic patterns, redirecting harmful traffic from its intended target, filtering out the DDoS traffic, and analyzing the attacks after they happen. 

These are typically always-on, cloud based systems that should work in the background - however, they can be costly as some providers use a pay as you go pricing.

2. Content Delivery Network (CDN)

If your business operates online and serves customers worldwide—such as e-commerce ventures, publishing platforms, or providers of virtual services—a Content Delivery Network (CDN) could be a crucial tool to minimize the effects of DDoS attacks.

Conventionally, businesses like these would have their services stored on a single central server. While this setup provided direct control over servers for upgrades and upkeep, it also meant that a typical DDoS attack could bring operations to a standstill for an extended period.

That's precisely why CDNs are rapidly becoming indispensable. They come at a reasonable cost, are easy to configure, and provide a plethora of advantages compared to the typical centralized server arrangement:

• CDNs strategically position nodes around the world, ensuring that users from various locations can access content swiftly.
• By dispersing your content across multiple servers, CDNs effectively lessen the impact of DDoS attacks by evenly distributing the load across the network's full capacity.
• Furthermore, CDNs indirectly contribute to cost savings by averting unnecessary expenses and losses resulting from server downtimes and compromised websites.

3. Web Application Firewalls (WAF)

Hardware firewalls and web application firewalls are, in essence, relatively comparable. They serve as gateways between your network and the internet and are usually equipped with security features that are also present in the physical versions. 

But if you look more closely, there are a number of technical distinctions between them:

• A hardware firewall device is designed to defend the complete network infrastructure, whereas a WAF is primarily focused on protecting websites and web applications from online attacks.
• A WAF works at the application layer, identifying risks and defending you from them by analyzing and filtering HTTP requests, answers, and traffic. A hardware firewall controls traffic flow and detects and stops threats by examining IP addresses, ports, and protocols at the network or transport layer.
• Hardware firewall devices utilize access control lists (ACLs), stateful inspection, and rules to decide whether network traffic should be allowed or prohibited. In contrast, WAFs use deep packet inspection, signature-based detection, and other techniques to identify and prevent malicious traffic.

Interestingly, there are solutions like Audra Business that offer hybrid solutions combining a hardware firewall device with cloud firewall services. This gives the end user, you and I, the finest features of both worlds and lets us use application, network, and transport layer security settings for robust and comprehensive protection.

How can Audra help to protect your business?

Solutions like Audra Business combine the best of both worlds, and offer users security features that are often either found in hardware firewall solutions or Web Application Firewalls. This is made possible because Audra Business consists of two parts - the actual hardware firewall that sits in your office, and the AI-powered Audra Cloud. 

Here are some of the ways that a solution like Audra Business can help you with:

• Traffic Analysis and Anomaly Detection: Audra employs advanced traffic analysis and anomaly detection capabilities to identify unusual patterns in incoming network traffic. This allows Audra to quickly detect and respond to any potential DDoS attacks
• Rate Limiting and Traffic Throttling: The hardware firewall regulates incoming traffic through rate limiting and traffic throttling. It restricts the flow of data from suspicious sources to prevent resource exhaustion that can lead to network disruption
• Blacklisting and Whitelisting: Audra Business allows users to create custom blacklists and whitelists through the easy-to-use control panel. This feature blocks traffic from known malicious IP addresses and allows legitimate users to access network resources
• Gateway protection: Audra analyzes the data flow patterns that are incoming to your gateway devices across various protocols, and will protect all the devices that are currently connected from any malicious attempts
• Real-Time Alerting and Reporting: Audra provides real-time alerts and comprehensive reporting on network activity. This gives business owners a complete overview of what’s happening in the network, helps you identify if there are any compromised machines, and lets you take immediate action to improve future security measures

In a world where digital risks are more dangerous than ever, protecting your SMB from the dangers of DDoS attacks is not just smart, it's essential. The statistics continue to show a sharp rise in malicious attacks on businesses of all kinds, which shows how important this issue is. As you've seen, the effects of these kinds of attacks are much worse than just being inconvenient. They include financial losses, damage to your image, and problems with how your business works.

There are ways to protect your business from these threats, and Audra Business is at the front of the pack. This clever mix of cutting-edge technology stands as a guardian, always on the lookout for DDoS attacks and ready to stop them. By combining the power of Audra Cloud with a strong physical firewall, your business gets a shield that can't be broken through. You can stop attacks before they mess up your business with the help of the many security features, such as traffic analysis, anomaly recognition, and real-time alerting and reporting.

Remember that your digital infrastructure is the backbone of your business, and protecting it is not just a good idea, it's a must. With Audra Business, you don't just protect your systems; you also protect the success and growth of your business in a world that is becoming more and more digital. Don't wait for the threat to hit; strengthen your defenses now and confidently walk into a safe digital future with Audra by your side.