In what way can cloud security automate defense against a DDoS attack?

Automating defense against a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is crucial for maintaining service availability and protecting resources. The chosen answer emphasizes the effectiveness of redirecting traffic and applying rate limiting as a vital strategy in cloud security.

When a DDoS attack occurs, typically, a large volume of traffic is directed toward a target, overwhelming its resources. By redirecting traffic, automated systems can send incoming requests to alternative resources or scrubbing centers designed to filter out malicious traffic, thereby minimizing the impact on the main service. Furthermore, rate limiting restricts the number of requests a user can make in a specified timeframe. This approach helps to control the traffic hitting the server, ensuring that legitimate users can still access the service while filtering out excessive and potentially harmful requests.

This method is efficient because it enables real-time defenses to be enacted without the need for manual intervention, allowing cloud services to maintain uptime and performance even under attack. Other options, while they might relate to aspects of incident response or security, do not provide proactive or automated measures that directly mitigate the impact of a DDoS attack as effectively as traffic redirection and rate limiting do.