DDoS attacks becoming more effective

Disruptive cyberattacks are becoming more effective at breaching security, causing major disruption and sometimes bringing down organisations for whole working days, according to a global study from BT.

The research reveals that 41% of organisations globally were hit by DDoS attacks over the past year, with three quarters of those (78%) targeted twice or more.

DDoS attacks are seen as a key concern by almost half of Australian organisations (48%). Globally the worry is even higher, with more than half of organisations (58%) citing DDoS as a key concern. While 78% of Australian organisations have a response plan in place should a DDoS attack occur, only 24% are convinced that they have sufficient resources in place to counteract an attack.

Almost six in ten (59%) of those polled agree that DDoS attacks are becoming more effective at subverting their organisation’s IT security measures. Attackers are often adopting hybrid, or multi-vector, attack tactics which involve attacks through multiple platforms. These have increased by 41% during the past year.

Multi-vector attacks pose increased complexity and risk as they involve multiple attack methods deployed simultaneously. These often require a dedicated team to track and combat the threat across multiple fronts, as automated systems are less likely to be able to offer adequate protection.

On average, organisations take 12 hours to fully recover from an especially powerful attack - longer than an entire working day. In Australia, seven-in-ten IT decision-makers (71%) admit that DDoS attacks have brought down their systems for more than six hours - almost a full working day.

The research was undertaken by Vanson Bourne for BT in May 2014. Six hundred and forty interviews were carried out with IT decision-makers in medium- to large-sized organisations (1000+ employees) in 11 countries and regions - UK, France, Germany, USA, Spain, Brazil, Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and Australia - across a range of sectors including finance, retail and the public sector.

Image courtesy Dave Herholz under CC.