There was once a time when you’d wake up extra early (along with 50,000 other people) to phone for tickets to a popular concert. Instead of getting a ticket, around 30,000 of those people heard a busy signal. Over and over again.
A criminal distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) on your website would work on a similar principle except at a much larger scale. Your website server would be bombarded with data sent simultaneously from many individual computers (like, millions), paralyzing it for minutes, hours, days—however long the cybercriminal chooses.
How long can your business run when the customers cannot purchase the services? The Nexusguard blog says the majority of attacks were shorter than 90 minutes, and around 17% lasted about up to 20 hours.
Do I need to tell you that downtime costs money and productivity? I didn’t think so.
As with all things in life, the attacks are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly common. Some DDoS attacks are just to keep cybersecurity occupied while the real crime, like data theft or network infiltration, occurs.
Ransom attacks—where the ne’er-do-wells demand huge sums to halt the onslaught and restore the website—are pretty everyday as well.
Is it time to press the panic button? No. It is not.
You can start by ensuring all your company software and hardware is properly protected. How will your firewalls react in the face of a DDoS? If you’re not sure, it’s time to check your prevention tools. How is your overall staff cyber resilience? Maybe it’s time for some pro-d.
Our business is to keep your business safe from these devastating attacks. If you need help, give us a call.
Ian Robertson
