
Cyber-attacks targeting business websites are evolving into a greater risk thanks to the increased ease of access to and low cost of DDoS-as-a-service, which makes it easier for attackers to take down a site with little in the way of infrastructure or specialist knowledge.
The high-volume, high-bandwidth ‘distributed denial of service’ attacks increased by over 370% in February (against January’s figures) with their power rising by more than 200%, according to cyber security firm Prolexic, a part of Akamai Technologies.
Attacks can cost a fortune for businesses, both financially and reputationally, if their websites are down for hours, or even days. However, many businesses don’t admit to being affected by an attack, and opt to give an apology for ‘technical issues’ instead.
Akamai’s senior vice-president, Stuart Scholly, said there has been a significant increase in the “network time protocol amplification” attacks, a name derived from a new way of disrupting networks.
Scholly said:
“Anyone can go out there and generate these really large attacks with really no skill sets. What we’re finding today is a lot of denial of service attacks because it has essentially become a service.”
Commercial enterprises are no strangers to such attacks, as they have been causing trouble for businesses for years. There have been a number of high profile examples of global organisations being affected, with sources ranging from state-sponsored attacks through to hacktivists and hobbyists.
With trends in attacks changing constantly, businesses need security staff capable of keeping up with cyber criminals, making IT security jobs more important than ever.
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