The telecom division of Ontario’s largest electricity transmission and distribution service provider is adding protection from distributed denial of service attacks to its portfolio for enterprises and internet service providers.
Hydro One Telecom (HOT) said this week its DDoS Shield delivers automated intelligent defense against distributed denial of service attacks. It is only available to HOT’s direct internet access service subscribers.
The price varies based on the speed of the underlying direct internet access service customers buy, and on the term of the agreement. Prices start at $108/month for full protection of a 50Mbps connection on a five-year term. HOT offers service and associated DDoS protection at speeds up to 10Gbps. There is a one-time $300 set-up fee applied for any implementation.
“Our journey to transform Hydro One Telecom from a provider of connectivity to a full-service information communications technology solutions provider continues with the release of DDoS Shield,” CEO John Papadakis said in a statement. “This important service is part of our full suite of solutions that help protect client data and mitigate risk in an ever-evolving and inter-connected world.”
The company believes DDoS Shield will be attractive to organizations that require secure and uninterrupted connectivity, including those in the financial services, energy, government, retail, security, and healthcare sectors. It says the service will improve network performance, mitigate downtime risks, reduce costs, and allow customers to focus on growing their business.
HOT is a division of Hydro One Ltd., which was formed in 1999 when the province broke up the government-owned Ontario Hydro into separate entities responsible for electrical generation, transmission/delivery, and price management. Hydro One became a publicly traded company in 2015.
HOT leverages its parent’s fibre-optic network to provide service to organizations that need high availability. The 8,700 km network offers connections to Montreal, Buffalo and Detroit. Customers include service providers, financial institutions, enterprises, public sector organizations and agencies, utilities, and school boards. In addition to the new DDoS service, HOT also offers Backup as a Service (BaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and what it says is Canada’s first integrated Secure SD-WAN solution.
The company said DDoS Shield’s advantages include
- smart technology monitors traffic that runs through Hydro One Telecom’s network, to detect and block malicious traffic before it impacts the customer’s network;
- 24/7 automatic detection and mitigation in seconds, well before reaching the customer’s network;
- a secure customer portal provides real-time visibility into the threat landscape and alerts.
- data sovereignty. Unlike other DDoS services which route data to “scrubbers” located outside of Canada, DDoS Shield ensures all data remains within Hydro One Telecom’s Canadian network.