Government Agency Sustains Citizen-Facing Services Through Persistent DDoS Pressure During Filing Deadlines

The Challenge

A federal agency operating citizen-facing services (e.g., benefits portals, filing systems) faces persistent DDoS pressure timed around high-visibility deadlines. Disruption during peak periods can create public impact and increased oversight. The environment requires compliance-aligned protections that fit strict procurement, operational constraints, and change-control processes.

The Approach

• Performed threat modeling focused on nation-state and high-capability disruption tactics targeting public-sector infrastructure
• Cataloged citizen-facing endpoints and mapped internal dependencies and bottlenecks
• Designed a zero-trust-aligned perimeter strategy using compliance-authorized components (where applicable)
• Established a joint response model using threat intelligence inputs and defined escalation paths for large-scale incidents

Implementation (example reference architecture)

• Implemented edge protections suitable for large-scale DDoS mitigation (e.g., Cloud Armor / equivalent controls)
• Configured global load balancing and multi-region resilience to absorb spikes and support failover
• Applied protocol-level filtering to reduce amplification/reflection exposure at the edge
• Established 24/7 operational monitoring with clear roles, alert thresholds, and escalation procedures
• Built automated runbooks for rapid mitigation activation and coordination with relevant external stakeholders (where applicable)

Outcomes (representative)

• Demonstrated the ability to meet availability objectives for citizen services during peak-window simulations under sustained attack scenarios
• Validated mitigation activation within the defined response objective for volumetric attack tests
• Improved operational readiness through dashboards, runbooks, and repeatable incident workflows
• Produced compliance-ready documentation: control mappings, evidence from testing, and operational procedures