Companies Blame DDoS Attacks on Competitors

According to new research conducted by Kaspersky Labs, many businesses who were victims of a DDoS attack believe that the attack was executed by a competitor.

The report found that a little less than half of DDoS victims (43%) believed they were targeted by a competitor, ahead of cyber criminals, who were suspected by 38% of victims. Overall, industrial sabotage was seen as the most likely reasoning behind a DDoS attack, followed by political conspiracy and personal vendettas. Additionally, 20% blamed DDoS attacks on foreign government and 21% suspected disgruntled workers or ex-employees.

The outcomes of this study varied by region. For example, In Asia-Pacific, 56% of victims claim to have been attacked by a competitor, while Western Europe claimed only 38%. In the Asian Pacific region 28% of respondents blame foreign governments and 33% blame former staff members, while in Western Europe only 17% put the blame on foreign governments.

Another interesting detail to point out is that smaller businesses are more likely to blame rival companies for a DDoS attack. Kaspersky found that 48% of SMB’s surveyed believe a rival company is to blame for their DDoS attack, while only 36% of enterprises feel the same way.

It’s evident that organizations regardless of size are being cornered from all sides. In fact, SurfWatch Labs found that service interruptions from DDoS attacks rose by 162% in 2016 alone.

We can all agree that defending against DDoS is a very tough job, but with NNT’s sophisticated breach detection solution, it's easy. One route for mitigation is to better prevent the establishment of Botnets in the first place, requiring a more malware-aware public with better computer hygiene standards. Once a botnet is invoked, organizations must isolate the malware responsible and get it removed, before the damage is done!

 Read this article on InfoSecurity Magazine