Michael Wheeler of NTT DATA outlines how a proactive strategy can continue thwarting attacks early.
Today’s internet security landscape is defined by an environment in which those seeking to protect vital digital infrastructure are in a continuous race with threat actors to fend off increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
From low-level disruption to far more damaging, widespread distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, perpetrators’ ability to uncover novel methods of infiltrating networks shows no sign of slowing amid the rapidly growing number of IoT devices and proliferation of attack vectors brought about by AI. As an illustration, NETSCOUT reported more than 8 million attacks worldwide in the first half of 2025 alone, averaging around 45,000 per day.
These trends send out a clear message – that taking a passive, reactive approach to threats is not enough for service providers and organizations serious about protecting their networks and other assets in the modern digital world.
Gaining the upper hand
Instead, an evolving, proactive strategy is crucial, says Michael Wheeler, executive vice president of the Global IP Network division at NTT DATA. “Dealing with attacks is about responding in a hands-on way,” he says. “We in the industry want to find ways to identify and respond to them faster.”
For NTT DATA, part of this involves the inclusion of proactive intelligent detection and mitigation capabilities within its range of DDoS Protection Services (DPS), allowing responses in as little as 30 seconds and threats to be halted early before damage is done. Through these functions, malicious traffic is rooted out and diverted to the company’s scrubbing centres, where it is removed before reaching the customer network.
These DPS services are supported by the company’s extensive global tier-one IP network, enabling a wide overview of threat activity and strategically distributed mitigation locations to quickly stamp out any potential issues.
Many tiers
Another form of proactivity is evolving with the times to introduce new offerings that suit a variety of customer needs.
NTT DATA’s Global IP Network division did that by bringing in a fresh tier of services last year called DPS Service Provider. This added to the company’s existing offerings – DPS Control, Core, Detect and Max – which provide varying levels of support, spanning from those aimed at customers that do not need full mitigation assistance to those enabling NTT DATA’s whole range of automated, top-level support services.
The new tier was aimed at including a specific offering for service providers looking to add a new revenue stream by creating their own DDoS protection services or enhancing the existing capabilities they supply to customers. This was all while including NTT DATA’s highest level of protection services, plus some additional self-service portal and reporting tools to aid management of alerts and attack mitigation.
“Through DPS Service Provider, we wanted to be able to provide another revenue or value-added opportunity for customers so they could extend that down to their end users,” says Wheeler. “It leverages what we’ve already had in place for many years, but allows a customer to white-label our service, including using whatever packaging and bundling they might want to put on it.”
He adds that the level of flexibility customers receive from this DPS tier has resulted in a highly positive reception from the market over the past 18 months.
Strong support
The service is further backed up by the Global IP Network’s Network Security Team and Network Operations Center at NTT DATA, offering 24/7 support and access to experts with many years of experience in the industry.
“The team’s depth of experience and knowledge in the marketplace is a huge factor in how we help deliver that service,” says Wheeler. “It’s not just the software or the hardware, it’s also that intelligence that comes from the expertise.”
The DPS Portal that NTT DATA supplies to users of its DDoS Protection Services also offers major benefits for customers, including acting as a channel for fast responses to queries and requests for configuration changes, and for reviewing mitigation history and attack graphs.
Via its proactive strategy to both help customers stop attacks before they are able to cause harm and provide a full range of tiered offerings to ensure it supports all today’s demands, NTT DATA believes it can stay one step ahead in the cat-and-mouse race to thwart cyberattacks.
