Defending Against Attacks

So, you’ve got your rate limiting in place—great!

But what happens when the bad guys turn it up to 11 and flood your system with a full-on attack?

You need stronger defenses.

Let’s talk about the three main ways to shield your app from Dark-Arts cyber mayhem:

CDN Protection – Offload traffic to giant global networks like Cloudflare, Akamai, or AWS Shield.
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) – Filter out malicious requests before they reach your app.
Machine Learning-Based Anomaly Detection – Let AI detect and block suspicious behavior.

📌 CDN Protection: Cloudflare, Akamai, and AWS Shield

CDN (Content Delivery Network) protection absorbs attacks by distributing your traffic across global servers. This makes it harder for attackers to overwhelm you.

🛠 How to Set Up CDN Protection

Cloudflare (Easy Setup, Great for Small Businesses)

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curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{"name":"example.com", "jump_start": true}'

Akamai (Enterprise-Level, Advanced Features)

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akamai-property-manager create --property example.com --product WEB_PERFORMANCE

AWS Shield (Deep AWS Integration, Expensive)

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aws shield create-protection --name "DDoSProtection" --resource-arn "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-east-1:123456789:loadbalancer/app/my-load-balancer/50dc6c495c0c9188"

📌 Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)

WAFs analyze incoming requests and block malicious traffic before it reaches your app.

🛠 How to Set Up a WAF

AWS WAF (Best for AWS Users)

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aws wafv2 create-web-acl --name "MyWAF" --scope "REGIONAL" --default-action "allow" --rules "rate-based"

Cloudflare WAF (Easy, Built into Their Service)

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curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/rulesets" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     --data '{"action": "block", "condition": {"type": "ip", "value": "malicious_ips"}}'

Akamai WAF (Enterprise-Level Protection)

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akamai waf create --config my-waf-config --ruleset OWASP-Top-10

📌 Machine Learning-Based Anomaly Detection

AI-powered anomaly detection monitors traffic patterns and blocks suspicious activity automatically.

🛠 How to Use AI for Attack Prevention

AWS GuardDuty

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aws guardduty create-detector --enable

Cloudflare Bot Management

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curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/rulesets" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     --data '{"action": "challenge", "condition": {"type": "bot"}}'

Google Cloud Anomaly Detection

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gcloud ml models create security-ml --regions=us-central1

🔍 Feature Comparison Table

Feature	Cloudflare	Akamai	AWS Shield	AWS WAF	Cloudflare WAF	ML-Based AI
DDoS Protection	✅	✅	✅✅	❌	❌	✅✅✅
Traffic Filtering	✅	✅	✅	✅✅	✅✅	✅
Easy to Set Up	✅✅✅	✅	✅	✅	✅✅	❌
Enterprise Features	✅	✅✅✅	✅✅	✅	✅	✅✅✅
AI-Based Security	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅✅✅
Cost	💰	💰💰💰	💰💰	💰	💰	💰💰💰

🔥 Key Takeaways

Defense	Best For	Pros	Cons
CDN Protection	Absorbing attacks	Scales well, reduces load	Can be expensive
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)	Blocking bad traffic	Easy to implement	May not stop large DDoS
Machine Learning Detection	Identifying anomalies	Adapts over time	Complex to configure