Survey - With DDoS Attacks Companies Lose around £100k/Hr

Computerweekly.com reported on 31st March, 2015 stating that according to a study by Neustar, a communication and analysis firm, 40% of businesses amounting to 100,000 pound or more per hour at peak times was lost which is 470% more than last year's annual survey.

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks try to shut down online services by crushing services with most heavy traffic and remain a popular method for hacktivism like Anonymous attack on the Indiana website of US State in response to a controversial bill along with means of distraction while intrusion with advanced network takes place.

A DDoS attack can prove extremely expensive for corporate victims besides disrupting and closing networks and putting customers at inconvenience.

We may see continuous growth in these types of methods in attacks because technical expertise is no longer required to launch DDoS attacks which can be completed cheaply.

The report reveals that 84% of businesses surveyed employ maximum 10 specialists to minimize DDoS attacks but as in many cases, DDoS campaigns are distractions which cause malware or virus installation when eyes are turned away.

Interestingly, the report also talks of "smokescreen" DDoS attacks in which the actual objective is theft. Malware was either installed or activated in 30% of DDos attacks, customer data was stolen in 18%, IP was stolen in 12% and money was stolen in 12%.

The survey also revealed that 56% of retailers struck by DDoS attacks were also hit by installation or activation of malware as compared with the cross-industry average of 30% and 76% of retailers struck by DDoS attacks were robbed of data or funds as compared with cross-industry average of 52%.

Itnewsonline.com published a statement on 31st March, 2015 quoting Rodney Joffe, Senior Vice President and Technology Fellow of Neustar, as saying "Businesses need to have more strategic approach to fight these attacks."

Neustar surveyed 250 companies in the United Kingdom and companies throughout the EMEA region in wide range of industries including technology, financial services, retail, health care, government and public sector, telecommunications, energy and utility, e-commerce, media and Internet services.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/7/2015