News broke today that the computer networks of Ukrposhta, the national postal service in Ukraine, have been disrupted by a two-day distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack. IT security experts from Corero Network Security and Imperva Incapsula commented below.
Sean Newman, Director at Corero Network Security:
“The reports of an extended DDoS attack on the Ukraine national postal service, demonstrate how easily unprotected organisations can have their operations crippled. With critical systems exposed to the internet and inadequate protection, denial of service attacks can have an impact way beyond taking a website down or preventing online transactions from taking place. In this case, it was a service that was reportedly brought to its knees, but outcomes for other organisations could include manufacturing processes being interrupted or halted, potentially impacting productivity, quality and even safety.
“This serves to highlight how any organisation, including those which don’t transact directly with consumers, can be seriously impacted by denial of service attacks. With the level of sophistication of today’s attackers, and without the latest generation of always-on, real-time automatic DDoS protection, all organisations are vulnerable to DDoS attacks of all sizes and durations.”
Igal Zeifman, Director at Imperva Incapsula:
“From the description, it sounds like Ukrposhta is dealing with several repeat assaults occurring in rapid succession. Recently, such tactics have become more common due to their ability to disrupt some security measures and cause fatigue to the people in charge of the attack mitigation, forcing them to stay alert even in the quiet time between the attacks. In the first quarter of this year, we saw the number of such repeat assaults reaching an all-time-high, with over 74 percent of DDoS targets attacked at least twice in the span of that quarter.”
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