10,000 DDoS Attacks Occur Worldwide - Daily

According to the Computer Security Institute, there are as many as 10,000 distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks occurring worldwide each day– the size of which go beyond 10 Gbps at times– and the likelihood of an organization experiencing an attack is growing. Without any warning, websites and web applications can be taken down, cutting off customers, partners and suppliers.

A DDoS attack occurs when a network or web service is rendered unavailable or inaccessible to its intended legitimate users, either temporarily or permanently, usually by flooding the target system with high volumes of traffic. Perpetrators of DDoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted by high-profile institutions such as those from the financial services sector, payment gateways, government sites, websites of major corporations, and entertainment sites, and the media.

The FBI/Computer Security Institute 2007 study indicated that the loss of revenue attributed to DDoS in just an hour could be $90,000 for a sales catalog company to $6,450,000 for a retail brokerage.

Prolexic Technologies, a US-based managed security service provider of DDOS mitigation solutions, in its July 2007 Zombie Report, noted that cyber criminals target organizations for financial gain, competitive advantage, corporate sabotage or ideological opposition. Their methods get more sophisticated, and more powerful, as businesses increase their security. The cyber criminals are determined and clever at targeting organizations and devising new attack strategies, it is truly a war of attrition.

Publicly-listed IT company IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP) had recently completed the acquisition of Prolexic Technologies Inc.