DDoS attack impacts are more than financial, finds survey

A new survey has estimated the financial impact of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack at £35,000 – but there could be far deeper lying impacts on a company.

According to a study compiled by Corero Network Security, the majority of security professionals around the world say that the loss of customer trust, running the risk of intellectual property theft and the threat of further malware infections are the three most damaging impacts on businesses.

The total cost of any business or productivity lost, plus the costs incurred to mitigate further attacks, is estimated by Corero to be £35,000 per attack.

A poll of more than 300 cyber security experts from a range of industries – including government workers, online gaming experts and those that worked in the media or finance services – found that 69 per cent of firms experience between 20 and 50 DDoS attacks every single month. In other words, that is roughly equivalent to one every day.

Corero’s research also suggested that DDoS attacks are becoming more complex – 85 per cent of those polled believed that they were just the precursor to a larger data breach activity.

Meanwhile, 71 per cent revealed that their organisation had been targeted by a DDoS attack that demanded a ransom.

Most of those polled – 78 per cent – said that the loss of trust or confidence among customers was the single most damaging effect on their business following a DDoS attack. Ranking next were intellectual property loss, further malware infection and lost revenue.

Ashley Stephenson, Corero’s CEO, said that this “immediate and damaging” impact on companies would ultimately come to bare on their bottom line, both in terms of costs and lost revenue.

He added: “Not all DDoS attacks will cost an organisation £35,000, but having your website taken offline can damage customer trust and confidence. It will also impact the ability of sales teams to acquire new customers in increasingly competitive markets.”