Internet security may be up, but so are DDoS attacks. Businesses are struggling with an increase in DDoS attacks on their servers and websites.
Business owners are quickly discovering that their customers or clients are no longer able to access their websites or blogs due to a worsening of DDoS attacks. These attacks cause crashing of their data centers and websites, costing millions of dollars, the loss of customers and business, and having to find new and better ways of securing their networks. Among the types of cyber attacks business owners need to fend off, the DDoS attacks are some of the worst and most common that happen online.
A DDoS attack, also called a distributed denial of services (DDoS) attack or simply denial of service (DoS) attack, affects the ability to access websites and applications online. There are reasons a hacker engages in this intrusion, and is done with virus and hacking software in order to suspect a host’s services or interrupt a website. High-profile websites are the ones most often targeted, though any type of website or blog can become a target to a DDoS attack.
Near the beginning of 2014, police officials have had a larger complaint of DDoS attacks where business owners were struggling keeping their data available to customers because of cyber attacks. One of the biggest attacks so far was in February, which was approximately 30 percent larger than the biggest attack the year before. It involved an assault of around 400 gigabytes per second. An Internet security firm was able to avoid the attack, but it could have cost the company thousands of dollars if they were not successful.
Another company experienced a similar attack less than a month later, where the hosting and domain company Namecheap had 300 websites knocked out temporarily. It’s not just traditional websites, but social media sites as well, like Meetup.com, who have been faced with DDoS attacks.
With the advancement of technology, hackers are able to use it to their advantage and increase the severity of DDoS attacks on targeted websites. They have multiple options, like HTTP flooding, domain name system (DNS) attacks, and Internet server attacks. When a customer, client or general visitor tries to access a webpage of a site that has received a DDoS attack, they simply cannot access the page. This means a loss of income and business for that website owner, costing them thousands or even millions of dollars as a result.
So far, Internet security firms and other security defenses have been able to keep up with the increase of these attacks, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t still at risk. Since they seem to be worsening not just in frequency but in severity, now is the time to improve your Internet security and get extra protection from a cyber liability insurance policy. This ensures protection if you were unable to prevent the attack.
