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Half of companies may be unprepared for sudden DDoS attacks, survey revealed
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DDoS attacks could result in financial and reputation damages
BASED on a research carried out by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, only half of companies regard countermeasures against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks as an important component of IT security.
This means, 50% of companies may prove to be unprepared for a sudden attack, which could result in financial and reputation damages, as a result of the unavailability of Internet services.
The research also revealed that companies from different industries have different views on the importance of protecting themselves from DDoS attacks.
For example, 60% of financial institutions, energy companies and utility services are conscious of the need to protection against DDoS attacks. While it is the highest percentage of any industry, Kaspersky Lab, in a statement, said that the number still appears quite low considering that IT continuity is critical for companies in these industries.
Also, the survey also revealed that only 38% of small businesses consider protection against DDoS attacks an important component of IT security, but for big companies this figure reaches 60%.
"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 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," said Eugene Vigovsky, head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection.
Meanwhile, 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%), e-commerce (44%), telecom (44%) and media (42%). At the same time, countermeasures against DDoS were named as important by 53% of telecoms companies, 50% of IT businesses and only 41% of e-commerce and 38% of media companies.
The figure for the media was the lowest comparing to any other segment, despite being among the four most frequently attacked industries.
Kaspersky added that it currently has a solution, dubbed Kaspersky DDoS Protection, that provides protection against DDoS attacks. It is based on monitoring traffic for suspicious activity and filtering 'junk' traffic at the clearing centres with the help of customisable "filters" capable of blocking almost any type of attacks.
Perform online transactions carefully
In a separate release, Kaspersky Lab sets a "friendly reminder" to online shoppers to exercise cautions when performing online transactions. According to the company, almost half of people surveyed who lost money in fraudulent online transactions did not get all (or sometimes any) of their funds back.
The survey revealed that 56% of respondents reported that they could fully recoup their losses, 16% of victims received only partial compensation and 28% could not recover any money at all.
In fact, in some regions, such as Russia, 58% of those surveyed said there was no hope of getting any back, and 13% received only part of the stolen sum.
These losses are significant -- as the average sum stolen by cybercriminals was US$218 and 18% of respondents reported a loss in excess of US$1,000.
The company said that it is vital that everyone must practice cautious, even if the financial company or online store promises a full refund in event of online fraud.
"You may indeed get all the money back -- although the figures suggest this only happens about half the time -- but the time and stress you will suffer are impossible to compensate. That's why it is important to pay special attention to the protection of confidential information, including your financial data," said Elena Kharchenko, head of consumer product management, Kaspersky Lab.
