Cable & Wireless has launched Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection for European service providers, the first wholesale DDoS offering from a telecommunications provider.

DDoS attacks paralyse businesses by flooding sites with a sustained flow of bogus traffic, disabling a site and preventing the completion of legitimate transactions. With DDoS attacks on the increase, European hosting companies, service providers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) suppliers are at risk, as are their customers.

Cable & Wireless DDoS Protection is a multi-vendor package that monitors and cleans Internet Protocol (IP) traffic. By having DDoS Protection, service providers can save time, resources and increase customer service by minimising internet downtime. Also, service providers will not incur capital expenditure costs.

A key feature of DDoS Protection is its web portal that gives customers visibility of their live network traffic allowing for better management and monitoring. Importantly, if any IP traffic is deemed compromised, Cable & Wireless takes ownership of the risk and diverts the compromised traffic to its own network for cleaning. Only when the traffic is fully cleaned is it redirected to the customers' network.

DDoS Protection comprises both Cisco and Arbor software for detection and network-wide monitoring respectively. Cable & Wireless is an established player in the security market, having launched a DDoS retail service in 2004.

The Cable & Wireless wholesale DDoS offering has been specifically developed for the carrier marketplace, providing the ideal layer of protection for other Cable & Wireless wholesale services, such as Carrier MPLS, Global VoIP Interconnect and IP Access.

Tim Ryan, security product manager, Cable & Wireless, said: "Computer crime costs British businesses hundreds of millions of pounds every year. At Cable & Wireless we've seen the scale and number of these attacks climb by 50% over the last six months. DDoS Protection enables us to offer the best protection for our carrier customers as it not only monitors but cleans IP network traffic."

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Cable & Wireless is a leading global telecom and networking company providing voice, data and IP solutions in over 80 countries across the world. Cable & Wireless established its operations in India in 1995. Cable & Wireless India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cable and Wireless plc in the UK. The company currently has more than 180 employees located across offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

Cable & Wireless India has a Global Network Operations Centre (GNOC) at its India Centre of Excellence (ICE) at Bangalore, providing 24x7 customer support. Cable & Wireless India offers services and solutions across the network providing WAN, LAN, multimedia deployment, security services, network management, data centre and call centre design and implementation services. Cable & Wireless India is a BS-7799 certified company with stringent security practices and processes.