DDoS protection is a high priority

In today’s Internet-driven businesses, any service degradation or outage caused by a DDoS attack can have a detrimental impact on brand, customer loyalty and ultimately, the bottom line. In seeking to understand how data centre, hosting, network services and Internet service providers are responding to the DDoS threat, Megabuyte sought the view of providers on the impacts of, and attitudes towards, DDoS attacks and the available mitigation strategies. Key findings gathered through conversations with a broad spectrum of C-level executives within these organisations include:
· 89 percent of providers participating in this study feel responsible for implementing DDoS protection, both for the protection of their customers and their own protection, despite the fact that they believe customers are impacted by DDoS to a greater extent than their own networks.
· DDoS mitigation tools are helping to detect DDoS attacks, but customer complaints about service issues remain one of the main indicators for service providers that an attack is underway. Nearly half of participants experiencing an attack in the last year cited this as the primary means of notification.
· More than 80 percent of participants have expressed that DDoS defences are either more important or of equal importance compared to other types of security defences, for both themselves and their customers.

Philip Carse, Partner and Principal Analyst with Megabuyte states, “The frequency and overall awareness of DDoS attacks are on the rise, and the majority of the individuals we have spoken with indicate that they are now, more than ever, questioning their current DDoS defence initiatives and strategies to protect not only their own business, but their customers’ businesses as well.”

Fueling the apparent increase in the scale and sophistication of DDoS attacks is the criminal monetisation of the DDoS attack method, or the concept of utilizing DDoS as a distraction for the launch of a larger exploit or breach within the target victim’s organisation. This means that a wider spectrum of businesses stand to suffer in the future as they become victims of this trend, and in turn, companies and government organisations are calling on their service providers for help in combating these malicious DDoS attacks.

“While this survey focused on UK-based providers, I am confident that we would see similar results around the globe – DDoS attacks do not recognise geographical boundaries,” said Ashley Stephenson, CEO, Corero Network Security. “The findings in this report strongly underscore the importance of including a First Line of Defense against DDoS attacks as a vital component of your network security architecture. With comprehensive visibility into the DDoS-related security events taking place on your network and the ability to respond in real-time to block them, you are proactively protecting your customers from one more category of damaging cyber threats directed at your network and their services.”