Almost half of firms believe cyber attack sources are competitors

A recent study has found that 48% of firms feel that they are aware of the motivation and identity of the hackers responsible for DDos attacks targetting them. They believe that many of the attackers are actually competitors.

Respondents to the survey told security vendor Kaspersky Lab that other guilty parties include criminals looking to distract or interfere while another criminal attack was simultaneously occurring, along with criminals looking to disrupt services until their ransom is met.

Matt White, a one-time business resilience and information protection manager for accounting company KPMG, said that it is highly probable that Kaspersky’s prediction will come true.

He said that it is known that a large number of higher education courses are sponsored by larger corporations, particularly any PhD courses requiring finance. He added:

“We may never know who did this attack, but it isn’t impossible to imagine for example that this was another large educational organisation that either wanted to steal IP such as research, or a large corporation that wanted to give its student more time with a hand in deadline, for example.

Cyber criminals are clearly evolving in technology and intelligence, and unless businesses do the same, they are leaving themselves vulnerable. It is more important than ever for businesses to employ security personnel trained in identifying and combatting security attacks. If they did the smart thing, they would be opening positions for cyber security jobs and interviewing the very best candidates they can find.