Denial-of-service attacks have multiplied since the start of the war in Ukraine
Public attention for denial-of-service attacks has massively increased since the start of the Russian aggression, Marc Wilczek (COO, Link11)
If the pandemic had promoted the proliferation of computer attacks, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also boosted hackers' actions, including DDos attacks, the initial denial of service attacks. In this article we tell you what this type of attack is, what the risks are, and what tools companies or organizations can use to protect themselves against it.
According to a recent article on the specialized portal techrepublic, DDoS attacks quadrupled in the first quarter of this year compared to 2021. The reason for this is due both to Russian hackers seeking to disable Ukrainian IT services or those of countries supplying resources, as well as hacktivists seeking to collaborate with Ukraine through this type of action. Along the way, there has also been an increase in actions by other hackers seeking to attack companies, blocking their services, and demanding rewards for the resolution of the problem.
What is a denial-of-service attack? In a denial-of-service attack, attackers seek to automate access to a service from many computers simultaneously, seeking to collapse and shut down the service, servers and related IT infrastructure. There are several types of them, and one of the most common is called UDP flood attack. It is worth noting that this type is usually easier to perform than other DDoS attacks, or to put it another way, it can cause significant damage with little or moderate effort.
Impact of DDos attacks
Unfortunately, organizations are often unprepared for these attacks, and the consequences are often dire. On the one hand, those affected suffer the inability to carry out their normal business operations. A second level of damage is financial, with loss of money, for example due to a fall in the price of shares, or economic losses suffered as a result of the damage caused. A third level of damage is the damage to the reputation of the brand, which is often the most damaging.
A company affected by a computer attack loses its credibility in the eyes of its customers. Nobody wants to see how the first thing that appears about your company when googled by a potential customer or investor, are articles about hacker attacks and the damage done.
Is it possible to avoid DDos attacks?
Organizations must constantly deal with hacker threats. For example, it is common to perform penetration tests, to simulate everything that a malicious hacker could do, and to self-test how secure the company is against it.
Regarding DDos attacks, there are different tools on the market that are able to detect them - or at least try to - and allow the threat to be deactivated.
In order to evaluate them, NimbusDDOS, a company specialized in these types of attacks, recently conducted an audit to measure the effectiveness of the main global DDoS attack prevention software platforms, namely Akamai, Cloudflare, Imperva, Neustar, and Link11
The study was carried out on companies that had each of these solutions installed, in a consensual and warned analysis, with a moderate level of attack to avoid the fall of the affected services. And in all of them, according to the testers, respecting the default configuration of the platforms.
After the analysis, a study issued by Frost & Sullivan verified that the only solution that detected all the attacks was Link11, since all the others were unable to stop at least one of the attempts
Link11 also came out on top in the second metric used, which verified the speed of detection, a fundamental variable in preventing havoc on the organizations attacked. In some cases the difference was 0 seconds, compared to 4 minutes for other solutions
Regarding the importance of this measurement, it is worth noting that according to the specialists at Frost & Sullivan, a research & consulting firm that helps clients accelerate growth, "Only solutions that can deliver swift and precise DDoS mitigation can help organizations achieve true operational resilience in the face of web-based threats. The quicker the mitigation, the smaller the business risk."
“Denial-of-service attacks have massively multiplied since the start of the pandemic and are also part of the hybrid warfare in the Ukrainian conflict. Private and business life is increasingly shifting into the digital space. This offers more and more attack surfaces. Our figures make it clear: not only the number of DDoS attacks is increasing, but their DNA is also changing. Complexity is growing, new attack vectors and methods such as "carpet bombing" are becoming established. In contrast, existing security tools are reaching their limits. Maximum precision and speed in detecting and defending against attacks are paramount”, Wilczek says.
