Imagine the following scenario:
A small bakery in a quiet neighborhood begins to suffer a series of mysterious vandalisms. Broken windows, annoyed customers, and the owner finds himself under increasing pressure.
Suddenly, a man appears with a magic solution:
🔹 “We can protect your establishment… for a small fee.”
The problem? This “insurance” comes just at the moment of the attack.
If that sounds familiar, you’ve seen this model before. It’s the classic extortion tactic of the Italian mafia. And believe us, in the world of DDoS mitigation, we suspect that this game is also going on…
In recent months, we’ ve seen an alarming increase in suspicious companies offering “miracle solutions” against attacks.
🛑 But what’s the problem?
1️⃣ These are small companies with no history in the market. They appear
2️⃣ just as attacks are happening. They offer prices that are
3️⃣ absurdly below market value – values that don’t make financial sense for a real mitigation service. They can deal with attacks
4️⃣ “perfectly”, even without adequate infrastructure.
If you are a company that has already suffered DDoS attacks and received a suspiciously convenient offer, this article is for you.
The “Magic Protection” Scam
In recent months, we have seen a repetitive pattern:
1️⃣ A provider or company suffers a massive SYN-ACK Reflection attack – one of the most difficult attacks to mitigate and one that requires state-of-the-art infrastructure.
2️⃣ The attack persists for some time, and the client looks for solutions.
3️⃣ An unknown company appears out of nowhere, offering perfect protection at a price far below the market.
4️⃣ As soon as the contract is signed, the attack stops or decreases dramatically.
💡 Coincidence? Maybe. But there are too many patterns to ignore. We serve many companies in the same scenario.
Why doesn’t this story make sense?
If you understand the DDoS mitigation market, you know that real infrastructure is expensive.
🛑 What is needed to mitigate a real SYN-ACK Reflection attack?
✅ A globally distributed network (Anycast).
✅ High-capacity equipment, such as Terabit routers, Tier1 Upstreams and low-latency switches.
✅ Advanced algorithms for detecting malicious traffic.
✅ Low-level solutions such as XDP/DPDK, SmartNICs and even backbone-level filtering (ACLs? Flowspec) to reduce impacts.
✅ Extremely optimized network engineering.
Now ask yourself:
🤔 How can a small company, with no relevant ASN, no robust traffic and no global presence, cope with attacks that even large market players have difficulty mitigating? We’re talking about 300, 400, 500+ Mpps… Yes, five hundred million packets per second.
🤔 How can they offer prices far below the market, even when dealing with high-volume attacks?
🤔 And why, curiously, do they always appear “at the right moment” to sell the solution?
There are no miracles in the security market. Either there is a very well thought-out scheme, or they are selling protection that is somehow linked to the source of the problem.
What could be going on?
🔹 Hypothesis 1: The Self-Provocation Scam
- The attacker launches attacks against specific targets.
- Desperate companies are looking for protection.
- The striker already has a solution ready to sell.
🔹 Hypothesis 2: Suspicious Connections
- Some companies may have direct access to attack sources, allowing them to slow down or stop attacks on demand.
- This would explain how they manage to mitigate massive attacks without an adequate infrastructure.
🔹 Hypothesis 3: Chaos-based advertising
- Attacks can be used as an aggressive marketing strategy.
- They create panic and then position themselves as the only ones capable of solving the problem quickly.
Whatever is going on, there is something very wrong with this story.
How can you protect your company from this type of scam?
If your company is looking for a real DDoS mitigation solution, here are some points you should check before hiring any supplier:
🔹 1. Check the supplier’s infrastructure
❌ Company without relevant ASN? No global presence? No technical history?
🚨 CAUTION! Serious mitigation requires a robust backbone and a real market presence.
🔹 2. Be wary of very low prices
❌ If the price is well below market value, it’s a big warning sign.
💡 If infrastructure is expensive, how can this company offer such low prices and still be profitable?
🔹 3. Analyze the source of the attacks
❌ If the attack disappears or reduces dramatically as soon as you hire the solution, something is wrong.
💡 Do independent monitoring to understand patterns and correlations.
🔹 4. Research the company’s history
❌ Legitimate companies have real cases, certifications and market presence.
💡 Check ASN, IP traffic and presence in global IXs.
🔹 5. Never decide under pressure
❌ Some of these companies try to pressure you into closing quickly.
💡 Be rational. Test the solution. Ask for technical details.
🔹 **6. DEMAND A POC (PROOF OF CONCEPT) AND TEST THE MITIGATION!
❌ If the vendor says it can mitigate SYN-ACK Reflection attacks, do a real stress test!
💡 Request a POC and see the solution in action before hiring.
💡 If the vendor doesn’t accept stress tests or tries to avoid practical tests, it’s a huge warning sign.
There is no miracle.
Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil – Credits: Renato Trentin
Whether in the physical or digital world, fear is a powerful tool.
Companies that exploit panic and desperation to sell protection should be questioned.
Security is not an empty promise, but a real investment in infrastructure and technology. If someone offers “miraculous” protection, with absurdly low prices and no solid technical track record, you could be looking at a well-planned scam.
⚠️ Real protection against DDoS requires high-level engineering, not magic tricks.
Be vigilant. Don’t fall into traps.
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