Consistent and relentless DDoS attacks are causing “real damage” to organizations around the world, with the number of affected enterprises on the rise.
This is according to Neustar’s 2016 Worldwide DDoS Attacks & Protection Report, which found that 73% of businesses interviewed have been hit with a distributed denial of service attack.
Further, the paper revealed that 85% of organizations have been subject to multiple DDoS attacks.
The study, which involved over 1,000 directors, managers and executives worldwide, also looked at the financial impact of DDoS attacks.
It noted, for example, that 49% of respondents stand to lose $100,000 per hour “during peak periods due to a DDoS attack”.
According to the findings, “respondents are reporting increased encounters with malware, and now ransomware, in conjunction with DDoS attacks".
Further, the authors of the paper said that organizations should be aware of “smokescreen” activity – where DDoS attacks are used to divert the attention of a more “sinister” plot.
“Organizations should be concerned that DDoS attacks are growing increasingly sophisticated and relentless, frequently serving as the first stage of a multi-stage attack against an organization’s infrastructure,” commented Rodney Joffe, senior vice president and senior technologist for Neustar.
In related news, it was recently revealed that security expert Brian Krebs had been hit with “one of the biggest web attacks ever seen”.
A massive DDoS attack – at its peak, around 620 gigabits of data per second were directed to his personal website – meant that he was eventually forced to go offline.
Writing on his site following its restoration, he said: “There is every indication that this attack was launched with the help of a botnet that has enslaved a large number of hacked so-called Internet of Things (IoT) devices.”
