Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are sometimes used by cybercriminals to distract businesses, while hackers sneak through the "back door," according to research from Kaspersky Lab and B2B International.
More than half of the companies surveyed (56%) are convinced that DDoS have been used as a smoke screen for other types of digital crime, while the respondents, the vast majority (87%) reported that they had also been the victim of a targeted attack .
Kaspersky Lab Security Risks 2016 has shown that in several businesses that have been the victims of digital crime, DDoS have been part of the attacking tactics (29%). For example, a worrying 26% of enterprises that have suffered data loss as a result of a targeted attack has indicated DDoS as one of the contributing players.
Overall, 56% of surveyed business representatives believed that the DDoS attacks they had suffered were a smoke screen or bait for other criminal activities.
Kirill Ilganaev, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, explained why DDoS attacks can be used by digital criminals as part of their tactics. “DDoS attacks prevent a company from excercise των συνηθισμένων δραστηριοτήτων της θέτοντας είτε δημόσιες είτε εσωτερικές services in standby mode.
This is obviously a real problem for businesses and often the entire IT team is working to fix any problem. DDoS attacks can therefore be used not only as an easy way to stop a company's activity but also as a bait in order to attract the attention of IT staff from another invasion that takes place via other channels. "
The survey found that when DDoS attacks were used by digital criminals as a smoke screen, businesses also encountered other threats such as 81%, 78%, 75%, 75% ), or even malicious activity against company personnel (87%). The majority (XNUMX%) was also the victim of targeted attacks.
As Mr. Ilganaev, “Our research shows that DDoS attacks are often aligned with other threats. Therefore, businesses need to be aware of the full threat landscape and be ready to deal with multiple forms of criminal activity at all times. Otherwise, this could increase collateral losses, in addition to the already significant losses caused by time throughcutting and the subsequent reputational effects.
Businesses must use a reliable DDoS attack protection service to reduce the risk involved and help staff focus their efforts to protect the business against any threats that may hide as a result. "
To help businesses maintain control over the growing threat of DDoS attacks and everything they bring with them, the solution Kaspersky DDoS Protection provides complete and complete protection to defend businesses at every stage of an assault attempt.
* The Corporate IT Security Risks Survey is conducted annually by Kaspersky Lab in collaboration with B2B International. In 2016, more than 4.000 representatives of small, medium (50-999) and large enterprises (1000+) from 25 countries were invited to express their opinions on the security of the IT sector and the facts they were asked to deal with.