The Dark DDoS threat will not only increase in 2016 but it will also let the cyber criminals earn money in the shape of ransom.
A prediction from Corero: A company that is among the leading provider of First Line of Defense Solutions insecurity and attacks by DDoS have predicted that there will be a significant increase in the use of DDoS attacks in 2016. DDoS attacks are being used as a smokescreen to distract IT teams while other attacks infiltrate the network to steal sensitive data.
Trends and analysis reports from Corero shows that attackers are increasing the frequency of attacks using DDoS by making use of shorter attack durations to distract IT teams through network disruption. It was also noted that a large part of the attack experienced by Corero customers in 2015 were less than 1Gps and about 95% of the attacks lasted for just 30minutes.
DDoS attack map / Gif Source: Imgur
Dave Larson, COO at Corero stated that DDoS attack will grow exponentially in 2016 as attackers are improving the highly sophisticated, powerful and adaptive method of Dark DDoS attack based on their previous success as a distraction technique. One of the first Dark DDoS attacks which were publicly reported in August 2015 was an attack on Carphone Warehouse. This is a new line of attack and it is a fast and growing threat to businesses that are connected to the internet and are housing very sensitive data: credit card details and other personally identifiable information.
Traditional approaches have not been able to catch these sophisticated DDoS attacks. It has been seen that one of the best approaches is by using an always-online DDoS mitigation solution. This will automatically remove the threat and provide a real-time visibility to IT teams so that they can harden their security perimeter to deal with the upcoming security threat.
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Ransom Demands from Bitcoin Could Triple in 2016
Security Operations Centre at Corero noted a significant increase where attackers are targeting customers with Bitcoin ransom demands. In October 2015, about 10% of Corero’s customer were faced with extortion attempts, this threatened to take down their websites unless the ransom demand was paid. According to latest trends from Corero, if these attacks continue to grow at the current rate of 32% per quarter, the amount of Bitcoin ransom demands will triple to 30% by the same time next year.
This growth has been greatly supported by the increase in the automation of DDoS attacks, and has allowed cyber criminals to perform hybrid, and multi-vector attacks which have increased their reach on an industrial scale. A claim from the Armada Collective cyber attackers stated that DDoS attacks can be as powerful as 1Tbps. Increasing industrialization of DDos attack will reap even larger attacks.
The Role of ISPs in Mitigating DDoS Attacks
Another key trend that has been anticipated by Correro in 2016 is the increase participation of ISPs in offering DDoS mitigation services to their customers. In a survey conducted during autumn, it was revealed by Corero that 75% of enterprise customers would like that their ISPs put in place some additional security services that will eliminate DDoS traffic from getting into their networks. Additionally, from the survey, respondents stated that they are willing to pay an additional 5-10% of the amount charged for their current ISP, for a premium service that will eliminate DDoS attacks from their environment.
EndNote
In conclusion, the current state of things shows that most customers are paying for bandwidth that delivers potentially dangerous internet content. But there are technologies existing for ISPs to overturn the situation to a business opportunity. This can be done by providing tools or services to customers that can mitigate DDoS attacks before it enters their customer’s networks. This is going to offer a great potential that will shake up the broadband market.
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