Playing “Whack a Mole”: Law Enforcement Response to DDoS as a Service
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks pose a serious threat to an organization’s ability to serve its customers. A DDoS attack can knock a company’s web presence offline, making it incapable of responding to legitimate requests from customers. And as DDoS attacks become cheaper and easier to perform — an attack or threat of this type — is growing. Here is law enforcement response to DDoS as a service.
Cybercriminals are increasingly offering DDoS attacks for hire, expanding the number and types of businesses that could be targeted by these attacks.
Law enforcement has acknowledged the problem, and some organizations are actively working to take down DDoS marketplaces. However, they are fighting a losing battle as new sites are created when others are taken down. Companies must protect themselves from this threat by deploying DDoS protection (imperva dot com). solutions.
The Growing Threat of DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are relatively easy for an attacker to perform. Unlike many types of cyberattacks, they require no vulnerabilities or security errors on the victim’s systems.
Instead, DDoS attacks take advantage of the fact that all systems have a finite maximum number of requests that they can process or data that they can store, transmit, and process. A DDoS attack involves sending more data or requests than this maximum number, either degrading the system’s ability to respond to legitimate requests or knocking it completely offline.
In order to achieve the amount of traffic needed for these attacks, DDoS attackers use multiple Internet-connected systems. These often include Internet of Things (IoT) devices (known for their poor security), cloud computing instances (which offer computational power for lease), and mobile devices (infected via malicious apps).
As the adoption of these new technologies grows, so does the potential threat of DDoS attacks.
In recent years, attacks have grown in number, scale, and sophistication as cybercriminals take advantage of the ability to transform a simple vulnerability (like the use of weak passwords on IoT devices) into a chance to impact an organization’s operations and potentially demand a ransom to stop an attack.
Cybercriminals operating DDoS botnets have also taken advantage of another opportunity to monetize their attacks by offering DDoS as a Service.
The low cost associated with performing a DDoS attack (thanks to modern technology) means that cybercriminals can offer attacks at a very reasonable price while still making a tidy profit.
As a result, the range of organizations potentially targeted by DDoS attacks has expanded dramatically as anyone with a grievance and the willingness to break the law can target an organization of their choice.
Law Enforcement Takedowns Aren’t Enough
DDoS attackers’ pivot to offering attacks “as a Service” provides some advantages to law...
