On September 20, 2016, Krebs’ website was hit with what experts say is the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack in public internet history, knocking it offline for days with a furious 600 to 700 Gbps (Gigabits per second) traffic surge. Nothing was able to bring the site online for days until Google stepped in at the weekend and saved the day by opening its Project Shield umbrella over Kreb’s website.

So, what is Project Shield?

Launched early in 2016, Project Shield is a free service that uses Google technology to protect news sites from DDoS attacks on the web. It works like a reverse proxy, receiving traffic requests on your behalf, filtering harmful traffic and passing safe traffic to the web server.

Project Shield protects your site in two ways, filters harmful traffic and absorbs traffic through caching.

Who can apply for Project Shield?

According to Google, News websites, human rights websites, and elections monitoring websites are eligible to apply. Project Shield individually reviews applications and invites eligible applicants on a rolling basis.

If you are running a news site, regardless of the size, you should apply for one. Your site will be standing in a much better position under Google’s protection.