DDoS attacks used to misdirect in sophisticated attack campaigns

With increased demand for distributed denial of service (DDoS) prevention solutions from mobile and data centre verticals, the global DDoS prevention market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.4% from 2013 to 2018.

Unlike a classic DoS attack, DDoS attacks use many computers and internet connections, often distributed globally, to what is called a botnet, TechNavio said. Three types of system resources will be targeted: computational resources (bandwidth and processor time), configuration information (routing information), and state information. A resource unavailability could result in huge losses to the enterprise in the form of lost information, funds, and reputation damage.

Organisations across the world are increasingly wary of DDoS attacks and hence are spending more in implementing dedicated and integrated DDoS prevention solutions to safeguard networks, the research firm explained in Global DDoS Prevention Market 2014-2018.

The new TechNavio report emphasises the importance of not allocating all the resources to short intense DDoS attacks. “DDoS attacks are increasingly used as a diversionary tactic. The cybercriminals employ small-scale DDoS attacks with the sole objective to distract security and networking personnel. While these professionals are involved in mitigating the attack, cybercriminals will attack the loose ends in the network with more advanced attacks and siphon off large amounts of cash and critical data,” says Faisal Ghaus, Vice President of TechNavio.

Key vendors to watch, TechNavio said, include Akamai Technologies, Arbor Networks, Neustar, and Radware.