Gcore — a European provider of high-performance, low-latency, international cloud, and edge solutions — has revealed that it foiled a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched against a popular European gaming company. Attackers initially targeted the company’s application layer, most likely through a network of botnets or amplification techniques, before switching tactics and using a DDoS attack of 500 million packets per second (PPS) with a total capacity of more than 800 gigabits per second (Gbps).

Andre Reitenbach, CEO of Gcore, commented: “By disrupting online gaming services, DDoS attacks can frustrate players and cause huge reputational harm to gaming companies. The impact on revenue is also severe, with an hour of downtime costing gaming companies between $25,000 and $40,000 on average. We are therefore delighted to have been able to stop this attack in its tracks — a result that pays testament to the security and resilience of Gcore’s cloud infrastructure.”

Gcore was able to stop the attack thanks to its distributed infrastructure and its peering partners that enable the company to spread traffic across multiple locations, thereby reducing the impact of DDoS attacks. In this case, Gcore’s protection team detected and mitigated the attack rapidly, preventing any disruption to the client’s web applications.

Reitenbach continued: “This case highlights the importance of having a robust DDoS protection strategy to ensure the availability and resilience of online services. It is crucial for companies to prioritise DDoS protection and work closely with trusted security partners to identify and mitigate potential threats. Key mitigations include DDoS protection services, firewalls and intrusion prevention systems, all of which should be tested regularly. Additionally, gaming companies can work with their internet service provider and web protection partner to identify and block malicious traffic and improve DDoS resilience.”

Gcore’s roots are in the gaming industry, which it has served with resilient, fast and secure cloud and edge computing services, and a global content delivery network since 2014. Current Gcore gaming customers include Wargaming (the group behind the successful World of War franchise), Saber Interactive, Bandai Namco and Nitrado, which provides hosting services for a variety of popular games, including Minecraft.

Gcore protection servers are based on high-performance 3rd generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors.