WEBSCREEN CLAIMS THAT JACKO ‘FLASH CROWD’ WEBSITE DISRUPTIONS WERE AVOIDABLE
Added: (Mon Jun 29 2009)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
June 29th 2009, Leeds – Disruption of some of the world’s major news websites, following last week’s announcement of the death of Michael Jackson, could have been avoided according the DDoS specialists, Webscreen Technology.
The BBC, Google, CNN, Twitter and Wikipedia were all reportedly unavailable for periods of up to half an hour as rumours of Jackson’s death caused a massive rush from his millions of fans trying to confirm the news and post tributes on the gossip Websites. The situation was so bad that both Google and the BBC believed that they were under a DDoS attack.
Webscreen’s DDoS mitigation technology protects some of the world’s busiest Web sites including online gambling companies, e-retailers and ticketing organisations by controlling the amount of Internet traffic that is allowed through to the servers, based on their real-time performance. As the Web servers begin to struggle the Webscreen appliance automatically throttles back the traffic using a granular scoring system to differentiate between different sources of Internet traffic.
DDoS is a financially or politically motivated attack on a specific Web site designed to exploit the limitations of the network infrastructure by flooding the server’s capacity to handle Web requests. The same effect is created when millions of individuals all try to access a Web site at the same time causing the Internet phenomenon known as ‘Flash Crowds’.
“Webscreen is different from other DDoS mitigation technologies in that it monitors both the inbound traffic and the performance of the servers it is protecting,” commented Webscreen CTO, Jon Shallow. “Under normal conditions all traffic is allowed through but when the performance of the servers starts to turn critical only the most trusted and best behaved traffic is given access, regardless of whether it is a real DDoS attack or a ‘Flash Crowd’ incident.”
For businesses that generate most of their revenues on line the potential for a flash crowd incident can pose a serious financial threat to the organisation. E-retailers are particularly vulnerable during major shopping periods such as the weeks leading up to Christmas when customers chase late bargains or respond to high profile ad campaigns. Webscreen ensures that Web site availability can be maintained for loyal, regular customers regardless of the volume of traffic hitting the site.
ENDS
For more information contact Paul Bristow on 0113 232 2332