Majority of UK firms 'unprepared for DDoS attacks'
Financial services was among UK industries that experienced a huge increase in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in 2013.
The report by Neustar, a real-time analytics provider, found that a third of UK businesses estimate losses of £240,000 per day when hit with DDoS attacks, which are used by cyber criminals to disrupt online businesses.
The report suggests the majority of UK businesses are unprepared to cope with the DDoS attacks, which it describes as a growing threat to organisations “with potentially calamitous consequences” for companies without proper protection.
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The rising strategic risks of cyber attacks
Around 70% of executives from financial institutions see cyber security as a strategic threat to their companies, yet many businesses are struggling to manage the risk, according to research conducted by management consultancy McKinsey in partnership with the World Economic Forum.
“Organisations large and small lack the facts to make effective decisions, and traditional 'protect the perimeter' technology strategies are proving insufficient,” the research notes. To complicate matters for executives, “mitigating the effect of attacks often requires making complicated trade-offs between reducing risk and keeping pace with business demands”, it adds.
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Darknet & Bitcoin: The perfect storm for cybercriminals
“Tor [anonymity] networks, cryptocurrency and the dark markets have completely changed the way in which cybercriminals are doing business and frankly they are just out-innovating us.” That's what Tim Keanini, Chief Technology Officer of security company Lancope, told the recent InfoSecurity conference in London.
He described the dark net in 2014 as a world where you can buy whatever you want including drugs and guns – all paid for anonymously with Bitcoin or one of hundreds of other cryptocurrencies.
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