Woburn, MA – January 4, 2017 – Research from the 2016 Kaspersky Lab Corporate IT Security Risks survey¹ found that businesses are not confident on how to protect themselves against threats like targeted attacks and DDoS, with nearly four-in-ten (39 percent) admitting they are unclear on the most effective protection strategy to combat these types of attacks. A lack of knowledge and protection is putting businesses across the globe at risk of grinding to a halt.

DDoS attacks in particular can quickly incapacitate a targeted business’s workflow, bringing business-critical processes to a stop. However, the research found that nearly a fifth (16 percent) of businesses are not protected from DDoS attacks at all, and half (49 percent) rely on built-in hardware for protection. This is not effective against the increasing number of large-scale attacks and “smart” DDoS attacks which are hard to filter with standard methods.

In many cases, businesses assume that they’re already protected from these types of attacks. Almost half (40 percent) of the organizations surveyed fail to put measures in place because they think their Internet service provider (ISP) will provide protection, and one-in-three (30 percent) think data center or infrastructure partners will protect them. The reality is that these organizations mostly protect businesses from large-scale or standard attacks, while ‘smart’ attacks, such as those using encryption or imitating user behavior, require an expert approach.

Moreover, the survey found that a third (30 percent) fail to take action because they think they are unlikely to be targeted by DDoS attacks. Surprisingly, one in ten (12 percent) even admit to thinking that a small amount of downtime due to DDoS would not cause a major issue for the company. The reality is that any company can be targeted because such attacks are easy for cybercriminals to launch. What’s more, the potential cost of a single attack can be millions.

“As we’ve seen with the recent attacks, DDoS is extremely disruptive, and on the rise,” says Kirill Ilganaev, head of Kaspersky DDoS protection at Kaspersky Lab. “When hackers launch a DDoS attack, the damage can be devastating for the business that’s being targeted because it disables a company’s online presence. As a result business workflow comes to a halt, mission-critical processes cannot be completed and reputations can be ruined. Online services and IT infrastructure are just too important to leave unguarded. That’s why specialized DDoS protection solution should be considered an essential part of any effective protection strategy in business today.”

¹Corporate IT Security Risks is the annual survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab in cooperation with B2B International. In 2016, we have asked more than 4,000 representatives of small, medium (50 to 999) to and large businesses (1000+) from 25 countries on their views on IT security and real incidents they had to deal with.