IP-Converge, Prolexic team up vs cyber attacks

MANILA, Philippines - IP-Converge, the country’s first and only publicly-listed Internet data center and cloud services provider, said it is ideally positioned to help businesses overcome the increasing threat from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks through its partnership with industry leader Prolexic.

In this age of the Internet and wireless services, it has become imperative for companies to maintain their online presence without compromise. However, DDoS attacks are increasing in volume and severity, affecting businesses in all industries and geographic locations – including the Philippines.

A DDoS attack pushes unwanted data into a specific system or network, overwhelming it, and eventually rendering it unavailable, or causing the system to crash completely. According to a recent report conducted by Gartner, a leading global IT industry analyst firm, DDoS incidents have increased to such a level that DDoS mitigation services are nearing “must-have” status.

The Gartner report further recommends “DDoS mitigation should be a standard part of business continuity or disaster recovery planning and must be included in all Internet service procurements when the business depends on the availability of Internet connectivity.”

While many businesses struggle to overcome DDoS attacks that sometimes bring down websites for days at a time, IP-Converge can help companies in the Philippines protect their online revenues. Through its partnership with Florida-based Prolexic, IP-Converge has been providing access to Prolexic’s DDoS monitoring and mitigation services since 2007 through the IPC Data Center.

“It is important for organizations that use private cloud systems to be aware of the dangers of DDoS, and how intensely they can be affected by an attack. For some companies, having their network or system unavailable even for a few minutes could mean significant revenue loss, or a totally damaged business reputation. Numerous companies all over the world have lost millions due to DDoS,” IP-Converge president Rene Huergas said.

Prolexic president Stuart Scholly revealed that in June, Prolexic successfully mitigated the largest packet per second DDoS attack ever documented in Asia. “No matter where you are in the world or what industry your company is in, if you conduct business on the Internet you run the risk of being attacked and need to have a defensive strategy in place,” he said.

Prolexic provides DDoS monitoring and mitigation services to businesses around the world in at-risk industries like e-commerce, online gaming, banking and financial services, software-as-a-service, travel/hospitality and the public sector. Six out of 10 of the world’s largest banks rely on Prolexic DDoS mitigation services.

 “Being solely focused on DDoS attacks, Prolexic devotes all its resources and manpower to detecting and preventing such attacks for our clients in a wide range of industries,” Huergas noted.

Huergas also hailed the cybercrime prevention bill currently being deliberated in the Senate as a good move by the government since this will provide the legal mechanism to fight and hopefully eradicate cybercriminals in the country. Offenses stated in the bill, according to Huergas, form part and parcel of the staging of a DDoS attack.

 “The passing of the cybercrime prevention bill signals the realization of the actual dangers of cybercrimes such as DDoS, and that these can no longer be dismissed. The business community must recognize the threats to their enterprise and start putting together their business continuity plans to maintain their profitability, as well as a high level of resiliency,” he said.

IP-Converge is Prolexic’s sole partner in the Philippines, offering various DDoS mitigation service packages to government agencies, financial institutions and enterprises. Prolexic is privately held US-based firm backed by US-based investment firm Kennet Partners, and also partly owned by IPVG Corp., the holding company of IP-Converge.

IP-Converge is the first and only Internet data center and cloud services provider listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. It is an information technology and telecommunications company, providing local and regional enterprises with an array of managed data services and cloud-based business solutions at international standards.