About 41% of companies across the globe were the target of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in 2013, leading to major disruption and even bringing down systems for complete working days, a new BT survey notes.
With the attacks considered to be a key concern by 36% and 78% of the UK and organisations respectively, this figure is 58% on a global scale.
About two thirds (59%) of the surveyed UK individuals consider that DDoS attacks are turning out to be more effective at challenging their organisation’s IT security measures, while 72% of US organisations have a response plan prepared in the event of a DDoS attack.
BT Security president Mark Hughes said DDoS attacks have evolved significantly in the last few years and are now a legitimate business concern.
"Finance, e-commerce companies and retailers in particular suffer when their websites or businesses are targeted," Hughes added.
"Organisations need a higher level security solution to protect not only the network infrastructure but the devices that initially provide protection."
Inevitably, organisations report a rise in consumer criticism when their network systems get compromised upon a DDoS attack.
The report noted that the multi-vector attacks pose increased complexity and risk as they engage multiple attack methods deployed at the same time.
In a bid to keep an eye on them, companies need a dedicated mitigation team to track and combat the threat across multiple fronts, as automated systems would be less capable to offer required protection.
"The most efficient way to protect against the attack is raising awareness among employees and partnering with a trusted and capable supplier," Hughes said.
