A Practical Guide To Security Policies And Protection Reinforcement For Japanese Server Clusters

1.

Overview of overall threats and strategies

- Goal: To protect the continued availability and data integrity of Japanese site clusters (multiple domains, multiple IPs, multiple VPS).
- Common threats: application layer attacks, DDoS/traffic flooding, port scanning, weak password intrusions, domain hijacking.
- Strategic level: Perimeter protection + host hardening + DNS and CDN distribution + real-time monitoring and emergency response.
- Reference metrics: 99.95% availability, maximum concurrent connection bearer model, peak bandwidth contingency plan (e.g., pre-set 1Gbps link parallel CDN).
- Compliance and Privacy: WHOIS privacy, GDPR/Japan personal information protection considerations, log retention and auditing.

2.

Examples of Server and VPS Selection and Configuration

- Physical/Cloud Selection: Lightweight site clusters can use Japanese VPS, and key nodes are recommended for deployment in physical or bare metal multi-data centers.
- Configuration example (single node, Tokyo Data Center, Japan): CPU 8 cores/16 threads, 32GB memory, 1TB NVMe storage, 1Gbps bandwidth, independent public IP.
- Network parameters: MTU 1500, BGP multi-line/multiISP backup, Anycast DNS nodes distributed requests.
- Mirroring and snapshots: daily incremental snapshots + weekly full backups, retained for 30 days and stored off-site.
- Access control: SSH port changes, password login is prohibited, only keys are allowed, and source IPs are restricted.

3.

CDN and DDoS Defense Practical Solutions

- CDN deployment: Using Anycast CDN (such as Cloudflare/Tencent Cloud/Alibaba Cloud international nodes) to reduce native site load in Japan and AsiaTaipei POPs.
- Cleaning/Cleaning Center: Choose upstream suppliers with cleaning capability of >=1Tbps to support traffic redirection to the cleaning center.
- BGP Black Hole and Traffic Alert: Automatically triggers black holes or forwards to cleanup by combining peak traffic thresholds (e.g., 200Gbps).
- Rate limit: Nginx limit_req + limit_conn, example: limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=one:10m rate=10r/s.
- Application layer protection: WAF (mod_security / commercial WAF) to counter SQLi, XSS, and crawler traffic.

4.

Host Security Strengthening and Core Optimization

- Firewall rules: iptables/nftables whitelist as the main type, DROP unnecessary inbound ports; example policy: restrict SYN, block suspicious IP ranges.
- Brute-force defense: fail2ban targets SSH/HTTP login failure rules, with an hourly ban threshold set at 5 times.
- Kernel parameters (sample values): net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=1; net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog=4096; net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max=262144.
- Logs and auditing: Centralized log-to-log cluster (ELK/EFK) and configure a 90-day index retention policy.
- Image recovery process: Standardized AMI/template creation, recovery time target (RTO) ≤ 15 minutes, recovery point target (RPO) ≤ 1 hour.

5.

DNS, domain name, and certificate policies

- Anycast DNS: Deploys multipoint Anycast DNS to reduce single points of failure and moderate TTL (60-300 seconds).
- DNSSEC and Two-Factor Authentication: Enable DNSSEC to prevent cache poisoning; registrars set up secondary email and 2FA.
- Domain Diversification: Different site networks use different registrars and different Nameservers, reducing the risk of large-scale linkage.
- SSL policy: All sites should enable TLS1.2+/ECDHE password suites and use automatic renewal (Let's Encrypt/ACME).
- Monitoring certificates: Automatically alerts to the operations group, starting 14 days before certificate expiration.

6.

Comparison of real cases and effectiveness data

- Case Overview: A Japanese e-commerce cluster encountered an application+SYN flooding hybrid attack, with peak traffic of 450Gbps and peak packet speed of 30Mpps.
- Handling process: Trigger CDN cleaning → upstream BGP forwarding to the cleaning center→ launch of bidirectional ACL + WAF rules → restore normal service.
- Disposal timeline: Switching CDN cleansing within 10 minutes of detection → complete remission within 1 hour.
- Results: Downgraded from the original 2-hour unavailable to 0.5 hours, with the average response time reduced by 40% after autonomous protection.
- The table below shows a comparison of key metrics before and after the attack (unit: Gbps/minute/hour).