Project Shield

{{Short description|Anti-distributed-denial-of-service (anti-DDoS) service}}

{{for|the game console|Nvidia Shield Portable}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Project Shield

| founded = {{Start date and age|2013}}1

| website = {{URL|https://projectshield.withgoogle.com/}}

}}

Project Shield is a free service providing protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. This service is offered by Jigsaw, a subsidiary of Google, to websites that have "media, elections, and human rights related content."{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/21/4862724/google-launches-new-anti-ddos-service-called-project-shield|title=Google launches new anti-DDoS service called 'Project Shield' |website=The Verge|date=21 October 2013 |access-date=2016-03-12}} The main goal of the project is to serve "small, under-resourced news sites that are vulnerable to the web's growing epidemic of DDOS attacks", according to team lead George Conard.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/02/google-wants-save-news-sites-cyberattacks-free/|title=Google Wants to Save News Sites From Cyberattacks—For Free |magazine=WIRED |language=en-US|access-date=2016-03-12}}

Google initially announced Project Shield at their Ideas Conference on October 21, 2013. The service was initially only offered to trusted testers, but on February 25, 2016, Google opened up the service to any qualifying website a Google-owned reverse proxy that identifies and filters malicious traffic.{{Cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2016/02/24/google-project-shield-battling-ddos-attacks/|title=Google's Project Shield helps any news site beat DDoS attacks |website=Engadget |access-date=2016-03-12}} In May 2018, Jigsaw announced that it would start offering free protection from distributed denial of service attacks to US political campaigns, candidates, and political action committees.{{Cite news|url=https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/16/alphabet-project-shield-ddos-protection-political-organizations/|title=Alphabet's Project Shield expands DDoS protection to politics|work=Engadget|access-date=2018-08-13|language=en-US}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/jigsaw-protect-campaigns-from-online-attacks/|title=Jigsaw's Project Shield Will Protect Campaigns From Online Attacks|magazine=WIRED|access-date=2018-08-13|language=en-US}}

In January 2019, Google's Jigsaw expanded Project Shield to offer free DDoS protection to political organizations and websites in Europe, ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections.{{Cite web |date=2019-01-29 |title=Google's Jigsaw is giving European politicians free DDoS protection |url=https://www.engadget.com/2019-01-29-google-jigsaw-project-shield-europe-ddos-protection.html |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Engadget |language=en-US}}