Infrastructure Hardening and Optimization

Building resilient infrastructure forms the foundation of effective DDoS prevention. Start by eliminating unnecessary services and closing unused ports on all public-facing systems. Every open service represents a potential attack vector. Conduct regular audits to identify and remove services that aren't essential for business operations.

Server configuration optimization improves resistance to DDoS attacks. Tune kernel parameters to handle connection floods more effectively. Increase TCP SYN queue sizes, reduce SYN-ACK retries, and enable SYN cookies to defend against SYN flood attacks. Configure connection timeouts appropriately to free resources from abandoned connections quickly.

Network segmentation limits attack impact by isolating critical services. Implement DMZ architectures that separate public-facing services from internal networks. Use VLANs to segregate different service types and limit lateral movement during attacks. Proper segmentation ensures that an attack on one service doesn't compromise your entire infrastructure.

Load balancing distributes traffic across multiple servers, improving both performance and DDoS resistance. Geographic load balancing spreads traffic across data centers, preventing single-point failures. Configure health checks to automatically remove overwhelmed servers from rotation, maintaining service availability during attacks.