Lumen Technologies Shields Texas Rangers During World Series Triumph

The Texas Rangers recently won their first World Series title when they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 of the series to clinch the championship. The team entered the postseason as the fifth of six American League seeds and going 11-0 on the road to earn their crown.

Eric Nadel, the radio voice of the Rangers, said it best: “Rangers fans, you aren’t dreaming.” Being a Rangers fan myself, it is a great feeling to see the World Series trophy being a reality especially after coming up short in 2010.

The postseason run was propelled by the productive bats of World Series MVP Corey Seager and AL Championship Series MVP Adolis García as well as the leadership of Bruce Bochy, who came out of retirement to become just the sixth manager in history with at least four World Series wins.

But the Rangers also had a bit of help behind the scenes. Lumen Technologies offered on-demand DDoS to help ensure their critical infrastructure, stadium Wi-Fi and fan experience remained uninterrupted from cyberattacks.

DDoS attacks are prevalent and involve overwhelming a target's network infrastructure with a flood of traffic, rendering the services inaccessible to legitimate users. In Q2 2023, Lumen observed a decrease in mitigated DDoS attacks, totaling 5,472 — a 37% reduction from Q1. Despite this improvement, the year-over-year comparison shows a 20% increase. In response to this growing concern, various cybersecurity measures have been developed, one of which is Lumen DDoS Hyper.

"Cybersecurity is increasingly crucial in high-profile sporting events like the World Series, and we left nothing to chance," said Mike Bullock, Senior Vice President of Information Technology for the Texas Rangers. "Lumen DDoS Hyper was instrumental in providing rapid, effective protection against complex cyberattacks, providing a seamless experience for our team and fans."

Lumen DDoS Hyper is a cybersecurity solution designed to mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks. It specifically addressed the threat to the Texas Rangers' network by redirecting the network traffic through global scrubbing centers.

Scrubbing centers are facilities equipped with advanced traffic analysis tools and mitigation mechanisms. They are capable of distinguishing between legitimate and malicious traffic, allowing them to filter out the harmful components of the attack while allowing clean, legitimate traffic to pass through. By rerouting the network traffic through these scrubbing centers, Lumen DDoS Hyper effectively acts as a protective shield against the DDoS attack. The reason is to ensure that only safe and essential traffic reaches the Texas Rangers' network.

"Lumen DDoS Hyper gave the Rangers a self-service way to quickly turn up mitigation services to combat complex and costly threats,” said Martin Nystrom, Vice President of Product Security for Lumen. “Our advanced scrubbing center technology combined with our Black Lotus Labs threat intelligence helped us create a safe environment while the team concentrated on delivering an electrifying performance."

The Rangers' active incorporation of Lumen's cybersecurity measures at Globe Life Field shows their dedication off the field, which is to protect digital assets and preserve the integrity of renowned sporting events.

Edited by Alex Passett