A survey from Neustar has found that 35% of organisations experienced a disruptive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in 2012.
In its survey of 704 IT professionals across North America, Neustar found that 39% of retailers and 41% of ecommerce businesses experienced an attack last year.
Neustar said that 26% of respondents indicated a DDoS outage could cost between $50-100k per hour, further showcasing the need for a strategy around DDoS protection and mitigation.
Neustar senior vice president of enterprise services Alex Berry said: "Preparation is key: The consequences of being unprepared to mitigate a DDoS attack can be crippling to businesses."
"It isn’t just about possible revenue loss – it’s about erosion in trust, brand value and reputation," Berry said.
The survey found that financial organisations experienced a 38% increase in attacks year-to-year and 44% of financial organisations were attacked.
Neustar noted that even though more companies are deploying DDoS protection, only 8% had no protections in place compared to 25% in 2011 and few firms have invested in purpose-built hardware or third-party expertise.
The survey found that 66% of firms use firewalls, routers and switches for DDoS protection and these networking products create bottlenecks that actually aid attackers.
Recently, a report from Akamai Technologies found that DDoS attacks tripled in 2012, when compared to 2011.
