DDoS attacks are larger, more frequent, and more damaging than just a year earlier. Anyway you study their behavior, they can be crippling to your enterprise.
The consultant firm Deloitte predicted earlier this year that the number of DDoS attacks could reach 10 million before the end of 2017.
Here are four developing ways that a DDoS attack could cripple your enterprise without a proactive security plan in place:
1. Today’s DDoS Attacks: A Persistent and Recurrent Threat
If at first a DDoS attack does not succeed, attackers will likely try, try again. According to research developed by the firm Akamai, DDoS attackers are very persistent, attacking some targets an average of 32 times over a quarterly interval. They reported a gaming company that was attacked 558 times.
Attacks are recurrent and faster than in the past. The threat is more prevalent and widespread than just a short time earlier.
2. Today’s DDoS Attacks: Strike with Widespread Penetration
IoT ups the ante for an attack. Do you have IoT networks? If you do, Neustar’s May 2017 report mentions that poorly secured IoT networks are a contributing cause of larger attacks. IoT devices are an often overlooked source of penetration. Endpoint protection for webcams, sensors, and control panels are usually not as austere and strict as laptops, PCs and more conventional equipment. Plus, the IoT device usually has no password protection or authentication and operates around the clock, seven days a week.
In 2016, it was Mirai malware that penetrated via IoT devices disabling French Web host OVH, Dyn, and IT security journalist Brian Krebs’s website.
IoT networks are growing as companies are investing heavily in their use as their business models expand. But a bot may capitalize on this expansion and invade. A botnet may be formed via IoT devices leading to serious damage.
3. Today’s DDoS Attacks: Hit the Corporate Checkbook Hard
The cost of DDoS attacks keeps creeping up. In 2016 researchers tagged the cost of a DDoS attack at $100,000 per hour. But most recently, Neustar said that 43 percent of organizations report average revenue loss of at least $250,000 per hour. They found that the damage, on average would be about $2.5 million per incident.
Corero Network Security researched DDoS attacks and found that the attack is just the beginning. They’re often accompanied by ransomware attacks. Some of these are carried out by agents for hire on the web, working for others who provide the tools to a novice hacker and forking over a percentage of the ransom retrieved.
They found that 46% of security experts they surveyed expect to be targeted by a DDoS-related ransom demand over the next 12 months. It did not end there. 62% believe it is likely or possible that their leadership team would pay.
Many companies view the ransom payment as a better alternative to the damage they‘d have to mop up after the attack reaches its full potential. The cost of downtime, clean up and fixing things to resume operations is just more than to pay.
4. Today’s DDoS Attacks: Cause Permanent Damage
Permanent Denial of Service (PDoS) is possible. Sometimes called “phlashing,” a bot or other means of attack, causes severe enough damage and does things like replace existing software; it can lead to permanent damage and destruction of the IT infrastructure in place.
This is the case for the newly identified BrickerBot malware that invades through IoT devices and destroys a device’s storage, causing permanent damage known as “bricking.”
The probability of a DDoS attack is growing by the month. The world’s IT landscape is more fertile than ever. They’re faster, more persistent, very pervasive and potentially more damaging than ever before.
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