The Surprising Ways Business Remains Vulnerable To DDoS Attack

One of the biggest cyber threats organizations are facing is a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), which has the power to bring down systems and essentially stop business in its tracks. Aside from just being a nuisance, this kind of attack can cause significant damage to a company’s reputation, operational capacity—and more importantly, their profits. Despite this reality, security researchers have found most businesses have yet to properly address potential DDoS attacks and are lagging way behind in their ability to protect themselves. Because they do not possess the knowledge or the skills to secure their own digital assets, they must rely on outside industry experts to offer real solutions.

Main Findings

Most business owners appear to know about cyber threat, but yet they possess very little first-hand knowledge to address it, let alone protect themselves. Although most are eager to learn more, they still operate in a chronically vulnerable state. Instead of being empowered to change their tenuous condition, they must rely on their service provider (ISP) and data center vendor to protect their valuable information—both of whom are ill-equipped for such a situation.

This condition puts many companies at risk of data loss and business disruption, among other problems, and positions them for a possible DDoS attack in the future. Moments like the sabotaged Dyn servers, which literally blocked millions of Americans from accessing the internet, are proof of this fact.

Trends

At this very moment, security analysts are noticing an increase in new botnet activity. The popularity of amplification DDoS and multi-day DDoS attack has only increased.  Further, the Asia-Pacific region has become the target location for a large number of digital attacks and is showing no signs of slowing down.

Regardless of size or operations, any business can all victim to a DDoS attack, which means they must find ways to ensure they are fully capable of securing their network and the data it holds. This effort includes utilizing the insight of experienced personnel who can employ next-generation technology to keep business up and running.

Next Steps

One thing is for sure. If an attack occurs on a business, and ISP provider will not have the wherewithal or the skills to offer customers any security. Not only do they lack understanding of an attack’s severity, but they do not have the right infrastructure or IT knowledge to properly prevent or respond to these incidents.