As the cybersecurity realm continues to expand, so do the myths that surround it. And nobody can understand this as better as Matt Mahvi, Founder and CEO of StaminusCommunications. Distributed globally, Staminus is a pioneer in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack mitigation and cybersecurity. Most recently the company has introduced hybrid DDoS mitigation technology.
Mahvi believes that if we ever have to get anything done effectively in securing the digital world, we need to demystify the following cybersecurity myths first.
Investment in Cybersecurity Will Hurt Your Bottom Lines
Matt Mahvi says that it is quite expensive for companies to protect themselves against DDOS attacks, considering the cost of equipment, bandwidth, and staff. However, having cybersecurity software can do wonders, and it could be saving your grace during a DDOS attack. Matt further highlights this with the example of PayPal, which suffered sporadic outages for nearly a week, costing them over USD 5 Mn in a flash.
DDOS Attackers Only Target Large Businesses
The thought that DDOS attackers are only interested in large enterprises is what Matt Mahvi regards as one of the most dangerous cybersecurity myths. The fact is DDOS attacks happen to every industry – big or small. Matt further believes DDOS attacks are not just for financials and similar stuff; they happen to everybody.
IT Companies Do Not Fall For DDOS Attacks
While many IT companies are significantly efficient and aware of suspicious activity, they are human just like everybody else and do commit mistakes now and then. To support this, Matt Mahvi talks about Staminus Communications, which became a victim of a security breach in 2016 that led to the leakage of confidential details of its customers.
You Do Not Have to Dig Deeper
For Matt, not monitoring the system network holistically is like submitting a term paper with zero revisions. He banks on a fully automated, deep packet inspection rather than flow-based as the latter does not provide much data. In order to indicate to stop slow, complex attacks, it is crucial to create heuristics and signatures against these attacks with deep analysis, with the data.
Using Routers As Firewalls for Network Security
Matt believes that routers must be used as routers, not firewalls. It is best to leave the routers to do what they are designed for – which is to route. Firewalls can run at 14 Mpps in a 6-core CPU and allow doing 32 static blocking and whiting listing. That is thousand of static signature blocks and it is all due to dynamic reauthorization.
With ample knowledge of how hackers work, and about the cyber attacks that are occurring at any time across the world, Mahvi’s debunking of these cybersecurity myths is highly beneficial in the digital space in the coming years.