According to research carried out by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, only half of the companies researched regard counter-measures against DDoS attacks as an important component of IT security. As a result, 50 percent of companies may prove to be unprepared for a sudden attack, which could damage not only their finances but also their reputation due to downtime of Internet services.
Different industries have different views on how important it is to protect against DDoS attacks. For example, 60 percent of financial institutions, energy companies and utility services are conscious of the need for protection against DDoS attacks. This is the highest percentage of any industry. Yet this figure seems quite low considering that IT continuity is critical for these companies, as they affect the well-being of many people. There is also a noticeable variance in opinion among differently sized organisations: only 38 percent of small businesses consider protection against DDoS attacks to be an important component of IT security, but for big companies this figure reaches up to 60 percent.
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In recent years, DDoS attacks have become a common tool for cybercriminals and their clients. There are many different reasons for organising these attacks – hooliganism, dishonest competition, blackmail, etc. Currently the price to order a large-scale attack starts at just $50. Each year brings ever increasing numbers of DDoS attack schemes, so IT professionals at every company need to consider ways of protecting against them. According to the research, 23 percent of companies include maintaining the continuity of business processes in the top three most important tasks of their IT services.
Interestingly the survey found no clear correlation between the level of threat faced in reality and the recognition of the need for DDoS protection. For instance, the sectors with public facing online services most affected by these incidents included IT companies (49 percent), e-commerce (44 percent), telecom (44 percent) and the media (42 percent). At the same time, counter-measures against DDoS were named as important by 53 percent of telecoms companies, 50 percent of IT businesses, 41 percent of e-commerce, and only 38 percent of media companies.
The figure for the media was the lowest compared to any other segment despite it being among the four most frequently attacked industries. This is surprising because if media organisations were unable to access and provide Internet services, they would be severely restricted in their core business activities. One recent case is the affected Serbian website InSerbia News, which was unavailable to readers for several hours because of a continuous attack in October this year.
“Even if a company does not have a public facing website, its finances and reputation can be seriously affected by DDoS attacks. It is known that DDoS can be organised not only to incapacitate online services or for ransom but also to mask other cybercriminal activities such as targeted attacks on the company to gain access to its confidential data. Therefore, protection against DDoS attacks is not reinsurance but a logical precaution important for any company that has business processes dependent on Internet services. To provide this protection, companies should use specialised solutions from vendors who have a wealth of experience and expertise in combating cyber threats,” said Eugene Vigovsky, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky DDoS Protection provides protection against DDoS attacks. It is based on monitoring traffic for suspicious activity and filtering “junk” traffic at the European clearing centres with the help of customisable “filters,” which are capable of blocking almost any type of attack. The work of the solution is constantly monitored by Kaspersky Lab experts, meaning attacks can be detected almost immediately and filters modified if necessary.
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its more than 17-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom, currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
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