Prolexic Protects OnCourse Systems for Education and its SaaS Applications against DDoS Attacks

HOLLYWOOD, Florida, Oct. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Prolexic, the global leader in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection services, announced today that OnCourse Systems for Education (https://oncoursesystems.com), a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) K-12 applications, has selected its PLXproxy DDoS mitigation service. OnCourse applications are used by schools and school districts in 40 U.S. states, and its website has tens of thousands of visitors daily.

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OnCourse engaged Prolexic after three denial of service attacks earlier this year. UDP floods hit the company's website at 8 a.m. on weekdays just as the school day was getting underway for OnCourse's school district customers. Approximately four hours of downtime resulted from each attack, affecting the availability of attendance tracking, grading, student information, discipline tracking, and other SaaS applications. 

After two DDoS mitigation service providers failed to prevent and stop these attacks, the company engaged Prolexic's emergency DDoS mitigation service. The cyber attackers abandoned their efforts as soon as they detected OnCourse was routing traffic through Prolexic's 1.5 Tbps cloud-based DDoS mitigation platform. OnCourse has not come under a DDoS attack since becoming a Prolexic client.

"OnCourse has learned from experience that there is no rhyme or reason to the motives of cyber attackers," said Stuart Scholly, president at Prolexic. "That is why DDoS protection and a well-rehearsed DDoS response plan are essential for every company that has an online presence, regardless of industry or size."

Prior to working with Prolexic, OnCourse had no visibility into the source of the malicious traffic and which attack vectors were being used. Other DDoS mitigation providers could not provide attack forensics, which OnCourse could have used to build a defense against future attacks. Now, as a Prolexic customer, OnCourse has access to deep network analytics and DDoS attack forensics through PLXportal. PLXportal is a secure online resource that gives Prolexic customers a real-time view of what is happening on their network and Prolexic's DDoS mitigation infrastructure before, during and after a denial of service attack.

"Like many companies, we thought that we would not be a target of a DDoS attack," said Mark Yelcick, chief technology officer and partner at OnCourse Systems for Education. "We have learned that firewalls and intrusion protection systems are not enough to be completely protected against DDoS. We simply cannot afford downtime brought about by a DDoS attack. That's why we chose Prolexic for DDoS protection."

To learn more, download the full OnCourse Systems for Education case study from www.prolexic.com/oncourse.

About Prolexic

Prolexic is the world's largest, most trusted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation provider. Able to absorb the largest and most complex attacks ever launched, Prolexic restores mission-critical Internet-facing infrastructures for global enterprises and government agencies within minutes. Ten of the world's largest banks and the leading companies in e-Commerce, SaaS, payment processing, travel/hospitality, gaming, energy and other at-risk industries rely on Prolexic to protect their businesses. Founded in 2003 as the world's first in-the-cloud DDoS mitigation platform, Prolexic is headquartered in Hollywood, Florida, and has scrubbing centers located in the Americas, Europe and Asia. To learn more about how Prolexic can stop DDoS attacks and protect your business, please visit www.prolexic.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and @Prolexic on Twitter.

Contact:
Michael E. Donner 
SVP, Chief Marketing Officer 
Prolexic
Media {at} prolexic {dot} com 
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