Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are sometimes used by cybercriminals to distract businesses while hackers sneak in through the back door, according to research by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. 
More than half of businesses surveyed (56%) are convinced that DDoS have been used as a smokescreen for other types of cybercrime, while of the businesses that responded, the vast majority (87%) reported that they had also been the victim of a targeted attack.
The Kaspersky Lab IT Security Risks Survey 2016 showed that DDoS attacks were part of the attack tactics of many businesses that have been victims of cybercrime (29%). For example, a worrying 26% of businesses that have suffered data loss as a result of a targeted attack cited DDoS as one of the contributing factors.
Overall, 56% of business representatives surveyed believed that the DDoS attacks their companies had suffered were a smokescreen or bait for other criminal activities.
Kirill Ilganaev, head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, explained why DDoS attacks may be used by cybercriminals as part of their tactics. “DDoS attacks prevent a company from carrying out its usual activities by putting either public or internal services on hold.
This is obviously a real problem for businesses and often the entire IT team works to fix the problem. DDoS attacks can therefore be used not only as an easy way to bring a company down, but also as a decoy to distract IT staff from another attack taking place through other channels.”.
The survey found that when DDoS attacks have been used by cybercriminals as a smokescreen, businesses have simultaneously faced other threats, such as damage and exploits via mobile devices (81%), through the actions of other organizations (78%), phishing scams (75%), or even malicious activity against company personnel (75%). The majority (87%) had also been the victim of targeted attacks.
As Mr. Ilganaev states, “Our research shows that DDoS attacks are often aligned with other threats. Therefore, businesses need to be aware of the full threat landscape and be prepared to deal with multiple forms of criminal activity at all times. Otherwise, this could increase collateral losses, on top of the already significant losses caused by downtime and the subsequent reputational impact.
Businesses should use a reliable DDoS protection service to reduce the associated risk and to help staff focus their efforts on protecting the business from any threats that may lurk as a result.”.
To help businesses stay on top of the growing threat posed by DDoS attacks and all that they bring, Kaspersky DDoS Protection provides complete and comprehensive protection to defend businesses at every stage of an attack attempt.
* The Corporate IT Security Risks Survey is conducted annually by Kaspersky Lab in collaboration with B2B International. In 2016, more than 4,000 representatives of small, medium (50-999) and large (1000+) businesses from 25 countries were asked to express their views on IT security and real-life incidents they had to deal with.
