What is AWS Shield?

AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its primary purpose is to help protect AWS customers from DDoS attacks that can disrupt the availability of their applications and services.

What is a DDoS Attack?

A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to overwhelm a website, application, or online service by flooding it with a massive amount of traffic from multiple sources. This flood of traffic can cause the targeted service to become slow or completely unavailable to legitimate users.

How does AWS Shield work?

AWS Shield operates on two levels: AWS Shield Standard and AWS Shield Advanced.

AWS Shield Standard: AWS Shield Standard is automatically included at no extra cost with all AWS services that are deployed behind the AWS Global Network. It provides automatic protection against common, most frequently occurring DDoS attacks. Shield Standard uses real-time traffic analysis to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks, helping to keep your applications available.

AWS Shield Advanced: AWS Shield Advanced is a paid service that provides additional, enhanced DDoS protection for customers with more demanding security needs. It includes all the features of Shield Standard and offers advanced DDoS attack detection and mitigation, along with 24/7 access to AWS DDoS experts for personalized support during an attack.

Why use AWS Shield?

Using AWS Shield is crucial for the following reasons:

Protecting Application Availability: Shield helps ensure that your applications and services remain available to legitimate users even during DDoS attacks.

Automatic DDoS Mitigation: AWS Shield automatically detects and mitigates DDoS attacks in real-time, so you don't have to worry about deploying specific configurations.

Cost-Efficient: Shield Standard is included at no extra cost with AWS services, providing baseline protection against common DDoS attacks.

Example: Protection against DDoS Attacks

Let's consider an example of an e-commerce website, "ExampleMart," which runs on AWS infrastructure.

Step 1: Shield Standard Protection: By default, ExampleMart benefits from AWS Shield Standard, as it's hosted on the AWS Global Network. Shield Standard automatically protects ExampleMart against common, most frequently occurring DDoS attacks, such as UDP reflection attacks.

Step 2: Enhanced Protection with Shield Advanced (Optional): As ExampleMart grows and its online presence becomes critical, they decide to subscribe to AWS Shield Advanced. With Shield Advanced, ExampleMart gains additional features, such as advanced DDoS detection, real-time attack visibility, and access to AWS DDoS experts for personalized support during an attack.

Step 3: DDoS Attack Mitigation: One day, ExampleMart experiences a sudden surge in incoming traffic that starts to slow down their website. This surge turns out to be a DDoS attack attempting to disrupt their services. AWS Shield, whether Standard or Advanced, automatically detects the malicious traffic patterns and immediately mitigates the attack, ensuring that ExampleMart's website remains accessible to legitimate customers.

By using AWS Shield, ExampleMart can confidently operate its e-commerce website, knowing that AWS is working to protect them from DDoS attacks and help maintain the availability and performance of their online services.

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