Worse than it seems: DDoS attacks are often attempts to distract IT personnel from real threat

A survey carried out by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International has demonstrated that, in most cases, a DDoS attack is only the tip of the iceberg. 74 per cent of respondents representing the corporate sector reported that DDoS attacks against their companies coincided with other IT security incidents. Sometimes these are not coincidences, but deliberate attempts to distract IT personnel. This approach has been called DDoS smokescreening. [caption id=“attachment_2143235” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Thinkstock[/caption] In the survey, respondents most often cited malware (21 per cent) and hacking (22 per cent) as the number one threats to their companies, while DDoS was chosen as the most dangerous threat by only six per cent. At the same time, DDoS attacks often coincide with malware incidents (in 45 per cent of all cases), and corporate network intrusions (in 32 per cent of all cases). Data leaks were also detected simultaneously with an attack in 26 per cent of cases. Construction and engineering companies encountered this problem more often than others: according to respondents, 89 per cent of DDoS attacks on these companies coincided with other types of attacks. However, even without taking collateral damage into account, DDoS attacks remain a serious problem that increasingly affects company resources. Specifically, in 24 per cent of all cases a DDoS attack caused services to be completely unavailable (39 per cent for government-owned companies). In 34 per cent of all cases, some transactions failed due to such attacks (64 per cent for transport companies). Last year, these figures were significantly lower: only 13 per cent of companies reported that their services had become completely unavailable due to DDoS attacks, while errors in transactions were experienced by 29 per cent of companies as a result of such attacks. Significantly longer page loading times remained one of the most common consequences of DDoS attacks (53 per cent this year vs. 52 per cent last year); however, according to the survey, attacks can last for days or even weeks. “It is natural that DDoS attacks are increasingly causing companies problems. The methods and techniques used by criminals are evolving, with attackers looking for new ways of ‘freezing’ their victims’ operations or masking intrusion into their systems. Even with a large staff of IT professionals it is almost impossible for companies to handle a serious DDoS attack and recover their services on their own. Moreover, if other malicious activity is going on at the same time, this multiplies the damage. The most dangerous part is that companies may never learn they were subjected to DDoS smokescreening,” says Evgeny Vigovsky, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, Kaspersky Lab.