AWS Shield

AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards applications, APIs, and cloud infrastructure running on Amazon Web Services against complex volumetric, state-exhaustion, and application-layer DDoS attacks. The service is available in two tiers: AWS Shield Standard, which is automatically enabled for all AWS customers at no additional charge, and AWS Shield Advanced, which delivers tailored, comprehensive protection and specialized threat mitigation for mission-critical enterprise workloads.

Shield Standard provides foundational network and transport layer defenses, automatically deflecting common Layer 3 and Layer 4 attacks—such as SYN floods, UDP reflection attacks, and DNS amplification—to maintain availability across AWS edge locations. AWS Shield Advanced enhances this protection by providing specialized detection and mitigation for Amazon CloudFront distributions, Amazon Route 53 hosted zones, AWS Global Accelerator, and Application Load Balancers. It incorporates intelligent application-layer DDoS mitigation with automated AWS WAF rule creation, continuous attack diagnostics, and real-time visibility into active DDoS events. Furthermore, Shield Advanced customers receive 24/7 direct access to the AWS DDoS Response Team (DRT) and cost protection against unexpected resource scaling spikes resulting from DDoS attacks.

Primary enterprise use cases include web application DDoS defense, mission-critical API availability assurance, DNS infrastructure protection, automated layer 7 flood mitigation, and financial risk mitigation against attack-induced cloud scaling costs. By integrating edge mitigation with intelligent anomaly detection, AWS Shield ensures uninterrupted application availability.