DDoS attacks rarely strike businesses just once

A company is rarely attacked by a DDoS (distributed denial of service) just once. If it happens once, it will probably happen again, which is why constant preventive measures are required, if a company wants to keep their online services operational.

These are the results of a new report by Kaspersky Lab. Entitled Corporate IT Security Risks 2016, it says that one in six companies were victims of DDoS attacks in the past 12 months. The majority of those attacks were aimed against construction, IT and telecommunications companies.

Almost four out of five (79 percent) reported more than one attack, and almost half reported being attacked four times, or more. The length of these attacks is also an issue. Just above a third (39 percent) are considered "short-lived", while more than a fifth (21 percent) lasted "several days" or even "weeks".

Companies are usually the last to know they’re being attacked, too, with 27 percent being informed by their customers, and in 46 percent of cases by their third-party audit organization. Kaspersky Lab says this is not unusual, as cyber-attackers usually go for customer portals (40 percent), communication services (40 percent) and websites (39 percent).

"It’s dangerous to view DDoS attacks as some rare occurrence that a company may encounter once, by accident, and with minimal damage. As a rule, if an attack is successful, the criminals will use this tool against a company over and over again, blocking its resources for prolonged periods of time", says Alexey Kiselev, project manager on the Kaspersky DDoS Protection team. "Unfortunately, even a single attack can inflict large financial and reputational losses and, considering the likelihood of a repeat attack is almost 80 percent, you can multiply these losses two, three or more times. For a modern company, an anti-DDoS solution is just as necessary as the basic protection against malware and phishing".

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