DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are damaging the business on all levels, but most companies that adopt DDoS protection measures are mainly concerned about the long-term negative effects on their reputation. A website, application or service that runs slowly or is interrupted will damage the image, credibility and ultimately the profit margin of all companies that rely on their online presence.

A DDoS attack involves the attacker overloading a server with suspicious traffic to prevent users from accessing websites, applications, services or other IT systems that depend on communication with the backbone. The ultimate goal of a DDoS attack is to disrupt, slow down or send them offline. To put it in an analogy, a DDoS attack is like an unforeseen traffic jam on the highway, which blocks commuters from reaching their destination.

Modern consumers have less and less patience with e-commerce websites, the ideal time to load a page has dropped to just one second. A website that loads in one second has a conversion rate 2.5 times higher than one that loads in 5 seconds.

Beyond the online presence, DDoS attacks can also affect companies’ digital equipment, causing problems with cash registers, card payments, order placement, or the delivery of digital public services, increasing the number of customers or even suppliers dissatisfied with delays. DDoS attacks can also be used to distract IT teams from data security.

2024 brings no change for the better in the cybercrime landscape, and anti-DDoS protection remains critical for at least four reasons:

1) DDoS attacks are increasing in number

A recent report published by Security Magazine shows that DDoS attacks in 2023 are 70% higher than in 2022. What’s more, they are becoming even faster: today, on average, attacks reach critical levels in 14 seconds, compared to 55 seconds in 2022. The data also shows a much harsher reality: the average number of DDoS incidents per customer has increased by 94% globally and by 196% in America. Also globally, certain industries experienced DDoS threats more frequently. The industries with the highest numbers were finance (29%), technology (22%), healthcare (14%) and government organizations (12%).

2) The intensity of attacks is increasing

Even though the biggest DDoS attacks occurred during the pandemic, in the last 2-3 years, the trend has been upward in intensity, but without reaching new negative records. For example, in 2022, Layer 7 DDoS attacks of at least 500,000 RPS (requests per second) increased by 81%. The largest DDoS attack in 2023 peaked at 1.4 Tbps, equivalent to the daily internet traffic of a small country.

To take another example, Cloudflare’s defenses mitigated 4.5 million DDoS attacks in the first quarter of 2024, representing a 50% increase from the previous year. In addition, many of these attacks exceeded the rate of 1 terabit per second, underscoring the need for robust anti-DDoS protection.

This increase in the intensity of DDoS attacks can have devastating consequences for organizations that are not prepared. A high-intensity DDoS attack can disrupt online services, causing significant financial losses and permanently damaging an organization’s reputation.

3) Artificial intelligence, IoT and encryption make DDoS attacks more complex

Attackers use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to dynamically adapt attack patterns. They identify vulnerabilities and bypass traditional defense mechanisms, making attacks harder to detect and stop. Automated botnets with artificial intelligence capabilities target specific weaknesses in a target’s infrastructure or defenses. Polymorphic malware can continuously adapt and move to evade detection. They can modify their code structure, change communication protocols and adopt decentralized architectures, making them resistant to traditional mitigation techniques.

Application attacks benefit from AI/ML technologies to remain undetected for a longer period of time. Differentiating attacks from legitimate traffic is currently very difficult because attacks mimic normal behavior much better and attack vectors are significantly more dynamic.

Internet of Things (IoT)-based attacks use massive botnets, backed by millions of devices with weak or non-existent security features and vulnerable access data (cameras, routers, home automation devices). They are nothing new, but the global spread of these technologies is amplifying the phenomenon. The more such devices participate in botnets, the greater the scale and impact of the attack.

Encrypted traffic attacks mean, in practice, that an organization cannot defend against traffic it cannot see. Encryption requires more computational effort. Whereas SSL/TLS certificates used to require money and effort, certificate issuance is now largely automated and freely available. As a result, attackers are increasingly using traffic encryption to hide and amplify DDoS attacks. Encrypted traffic will bypass traditional real-time traffic detection and mitigation techniques and can overwhelm the decryption/inspection infrastructure.

4) The need for resilience is increasing

The growing dependence on digital services makes DDOS protection critical. It is no longer just high-profile websites that are being attacked in protest, but financial organizations and portals of public institutions. Last year, the websites of banks such as BCR, Banca Transilvania and Alpha Bank were both targets of DDoS attacks, along with important public administration institutions, reports Profit.ro. Analyses show that logistic centers are also among the favorite targets, as supply chain disruptions cause large economic losses and can create chaos. Anti-DDoS protection measures, such as those offered by M247, ensure threat mitigation, keeping company services accessible and improving organizational resilience.

Investments in protecting customer data will be rewarded by maintaining brand reputation. In the long term, organizations will also avoid major financial losses due to downtime, lost sales (during and after an attack) and costs to restore business. M247 anti-DDoS technology continuously monitors data traffic and filters out DDoS attacks in real time to thwart them as quickly as possible. The service provides access to monitoring reports and is easy to configure. What’s more, M247 experts stand by customers during any attempted DDoS attack, utilizing the most sophisticated security technologies to remediate the situation.

For more information about DDoS protection solutions, contact us at office@m247.com.

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