Intelligent SME.tech Issue 23 | Page 44

// END-USER INSIGHT //

C

OLUMBIA WIRELESS IS a high-speed Internet Service Provider ( ISP ) delivering connectivity throughout British Columbia , Canada .
The company experienced a Distributed Denial of Service ( DDoS ) attack that saturated its upstream provider links , effectively bringing down its network service for all customers for about one hour in the middle of a business day . The company had never experienced such an attack before and was caught completely off guard .
Columbia lost some large clients because of this and it earned it a bad reputation for low reliability . Customers even expressed that they thought the company didn ’ t know what it was doing , in the form of emailed responses to the impact of the DDoS attacks .
Following the first attack , Columbia Wireless lost approximately 25 % of its business . In addition , there was no way to measure how many prospective customers stayed away from the ISP because of word about the DDoS attacks and the service outages they created .
When the attacks occurred , the ISP ’ s only recourse was to use a time-consuming , manual process to try and stop the impact .

Columbia Wireless DDoS attacks led to lost business

Columbia Wireless , an Internet Service Provider based in Canada , has addressed the problem of DDoS attacks by deploying Corero ’ s SmartWall DDoS Protection solution .
44 intelligent
. tech
Intelligent SME . tech