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 businesses surveyed (56%) believe that DDoS has been used as a smokescreen for other types of digital crime, while of the businesses that responded, a large majority (87%) reported that they had also been the victim of a targeted attacks.
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 doing its usual business by putting either public or domestic services in standby.
This is obviously a real problem for businesses and often works across the globe team of the IT department in order to fix any problem. DDoS attacks can therefore be used not only as an easy way to shut down a company's business, but also as a decoy to distract IT staff from another intrusion taking place through other channels."
The research found that when DDoS attacks have been used by digital criminals as a smokescreen, businesses have simultaneously faced other threats, such as damage and mobile exploits (81%), through actions other organizations (78%), Phishing fraud (75%), or even malicious activity against company staff (75%). The majority (87%) had also fallen victim to targeted attacks.
As Mr. Ilganaev, "Our research shows that DDoS attacks are often in line with other threats. Therefore, businesses need to know the full threat landscape and be prepared to face multiple forms of criminal activity at any time. Otherwise, this could increase collateral losses, in addition to the already significant losses caused by the downtime and the resulting repercussions on the reputation.
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.
