To ensure your business is available to connected users and customers, you need to provide an efficient website, hosted on a quality service, that can deliver your services and products to consumers. And it is precisely in this aspect that DDoS attacks typically operate.
Maintaining your own website demands a lot of investment and dedication from the company. Dealing with slow website loading times can be a real shock, especially when the company followed all the steps and took care of every detail to ensure the site was available with quality for all users and consumers.
Suddenly, your website becomes unavailable or extremely slow, and few customers are able to access your services and products. This problem can last just a few minutes or even days , causing a major impact on your business and profitability.
For this reason, it is very important to know how a DDoS attack works and what are the best ways to deal with this and other types of cyber threats . To help you, we have prepared a complete article on the subject, with important and relevant information so that you can deal with this type of threat more efficiently.
What is a DDoS attack?
DoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. A DDoS attack is a derivative of this threat. While a DoS attack involves only one attacker, which could be a server, computer, or user, a DDoS attack is composed of a series of multiple DoS attacks. Understand the difference between them better with this video:
With more computers or servers executing the attack, it becomes more effective, causing even more drastic consequences for the victim . This is achieved by using multiple computers to send massive requests to the same website , server, or service. In this way, the attack can make access extremely slow or unavailable.
In this type of attack, computers are not infected with viruses or malware, nor are files damaged. In simplified terms, it consists of overloading your website or server, making it slow and even inaccessible. To achieve this, cybercriminals use multiple infected computers called botnets.
Controlled solely by the cybercriminal, this attack makes it possible to direct these computers to a single network or server, sending multiple requests. Due to this excessive number of attempts, legitimate users end up unable to access the page, causing enormous losses for the company.
Because it doesn't involve infecting computers, a DDoS attack is often underestimated. However, imagine the impact that service unavailability can have on a large retail chain, for example. The company will suffer a significant loss in sales, a loss of return on investment in its marketing campaigns, a drop in profitability and market positioning, etc.
In the first half of 2022 alone, there was a 75.6% increase in DDoS attacks compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching the staggering number of 6,019,888 attacks.
Taking this into account, DDoS attacks should never be underestimated. This type of attack has already victimized organizations of various types, such as: hospitals, government agencies, large retail companies, e-commerce businesses, and many others .
How does this type of attack work?
A DDoS attack begins long before it is carried out. For it to be possible, cybercriminals infect numerous computers and machines, transforming them into botnets (infected computers that can be controlled by cybercriminals). These computers are used to send the multiple requests that make the DDoS attack effective.
Therefore , we can calculate that the more infected computers a cybercriminal uses, the more efficient the attack will be and, consequently, the greater the damage it causes.
Over the years , DDoS attacks have become one of the main threats to the digital security of companies and organizations of all types . Because of the problems they can cause for a business, efficient tools have been developed to help companies identify and mitigate this type of attack.
Here are the main types of DDoS attacks currently being used:
What problems could this type of attack cause for your company?
Many managers question the real need to protect against a DDoS attack, after all, it is a temporary attack that, unlike other types of cyberattacks , does not aim to corrupt data or steal confidential information. However, cybercriminals do not usually launch a DDoS attack on days with low user traffic.
Taking advantage of business vulnerabilities and the increased chance of negotiation (when the cybercriminal also attempts extortion ), DDoS attacks are often applied during periods of high traffic such as Black Friday , end-of-year campaigns, or other important dates for the company. In this way, it is used to cause the greatest possible impact on the victim , mainly in terms of lost profitability and damage to the company's image.
A company that operates exclusively in the digital realm depends on the availability of its website and pages to remain active. That said, attacking the availability of its services is attacking the continuity of its business .
Financial losses
A large company attacked during a period of high sales and traffic can suffer substantial losses as a result of a DDoS attack. When this attack targets financial institutions, for example, the consequences can be numerous:
- Your users may be unable to perform important operations;
- Extreme slowness during transfers;
- Inability to pay bills;
- Leakage of confidential data , such as bank statements, credit card information, access passwords, etc.;
- Damage to the institution's image in the eyes of the market and consumers;
- Among many other problems.
Regardless of the size and type of company or organization, service unavailability can have a major impact on profitability . Suppose a medium-sized e-commerce business suffers such an attack precisely during the campaign most relevant to its annual profitability.
Even if there is no contamination of the devices, no ransom demand for the stolen data, or leak of confidential information, the company will suffer a major impact due to the lost sales of products and services that occurred while the attack was being carried out.
Recovery after the attack
A DDoS attack is very expensive for the cybercriminal, and when it is unsuccessful, it is not profitable for the perpetrator. In extreme cases, downtime can last for days before recovery is possible.
Since your services have been unavailable for a certain period of time, it is impossible to recover the lost sales. After the attack, it is necessary to inform users about the resumption of activities and to seek tools that help prevent new threats.
It is important for the company to undertake intensive work to rebuild its image in the market (depending on the length of time the services are unavailable) and recover lost customers.
Damage to the company's image.
DDoS attacks are not just a major threat to large retailers, financial institutions, government agencies, or service providers. Many companies rely on business-critical applications such as sales automation tools, email, and CRM.
For this reason, it's important that, regardless of your business sector, you have a DDoS mitigation tool. When successful , this type of attack can have a major impact on a company's image , especially regarding the trust of its clients and consumers.
Your brand can be damaged in the market, causing consumers to think twice before trying to use your services again. Another little-discussed but very relevant consequence of this type of attack is that if your company has suffered an effective DDoS attack, it is a clear sign that it is vulnerable, meaning that new cyberattacks will come, and probably with even greater force.
Interruption of activities
The interruption of activities is the first sign that a DDoS attack is underway . Depending on your traffic flow, it is not always noticed immediately after it begins. Often, the service interruption started long before, and the company is already suffering the consequences of the DDoS attack, so the damage can be even greater.
When a website is unavailable to users, it results in a Gateway error, which can harm its ranking in major search engines like Google. Therefore, even after recovering from the attack, your company will still suffer losses as a result of this event.
Major DDoS attacks of 2022
In 2022, there were several major DDoS attack incidents. Some were significant enough to involve governments and large security teams. See the main ones below:
Attacks during the Russia-Ukraine war
During the recent war in Ukraine, a veritable IT army was formed, carrying out DDoS attacks against key resources and services provided by Russia. The goal is to disable services and cause major disruption to the country.
Attacks by the REvil group
This group, which has already been responsible for other large-scale DDoS attacks, began sending ransom notes even before the attack started, demanding a substantial amount from the victims to prevent the attack from happening. This is the same group that caused the disruption of JBS's activities in Brazil. Earlier this year, some members of the group were arrested in Poland.
Attacks on countries that participated in the war.
Several countries have suffered DDoS attacks due to the global political situation, such as:
- Russia has seen an almost threefold increase in DDoS attacks since it declared the start of the conflict with Ukraine;
- North American satellite telecommunications providers have seen a rise in high-impact attacks after beginning to support Ukraine's communications infrastructure.
- Ireland also recorded a sudden increase in DDoS attacks after providing services to organizations in Ukraine;
What's the best way to protect yourself?
There are several actions and strategies that can be implemented to prevent your company from suffering a DDoS attack, such as:
1 – Bandwidth: If your company has sufficient bandwidth on its connection, it is less likely to fall victim to a DDoS attack. This is because it is prepared to handle a large volume of requests , remaining unaffected by low-impact attacks and reducing the damage caused by more powerful attacks.
2 – Use a backup connection: it's a smart strategy to have a backup connection and a set of distinct IPs for your critical users. This way , the company can rely on an alternative path when the primary network is overloaded with excessive fake requests sent by cybercriminals.
3 – Learn to identify a DDoS attack: the sooner the problem is noticed, the smaller the impact it will cause. Therefore, it is important for the company to have a traffic monitoring system for its networks. DDoS attacks are one of the most common cyberattacks today, and there are already tools that can automatically identify unusual access patterns , so when there is a sudden increase in users, those responsible can be notified, helping to identify an ongoing DDoS attack.
4 – Use a protection tool: there are several tools on the market that help you protect yourself against DDoS attacks. They can identify and stop ongoing attacks , using tools designed to divert traffic and block malicious IPs. Below are some of the most commonly used tools today:
- Fastnetmon is an easy-to-use tool that functions as a high-performance DoS/DDoS load analyzer. It features several packet capture mechanisms to quickly identify a DDoS attack.
- Anti-DDoS solutions for service providers: companies like Oi , Vivo , and Embratel have anti-DDoS solutions geared towards businesses, with the advantage of being available in Portuguese.
- Cloudflare: delivering simplified solutions for users, Cloudflare has an Anti-DDoS tool that helps identify and mitigate these attacks efficiently.
Remember that there are many types of attacks , not just DDoS, and that new ways of obtaining data, information, and access from companies and users on the internet are constantly being created.
Simple and free protection systems certainly don't make sense for companies today , considering the levels of protection and also the sanctions of the LGPD (Brazilian General Data Protection Law ), which in some cases can result in fines in the millions.
I hope this text helps you and your company implement an efficient DDoS protection system.
Until later!
