DDoS attacks are no longer something that just big companies in a few industries need to worry about. They have become a threat to every business.

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Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks continue to be a weapon of choice among threat actors seeking to extort money from victims, disrupt operations, conceal data-exfiltration activities, further hacktivist causes, or even to carry out cyberwar.

What was once a threat mostly to ISPs and organizations in the financial services, e-commerce, and gaming industry, has become a problem for businesses of all sizes. A small company is just as likely these days to become a target of a DDoS attack, as a big one — and for pretty much the same reasons.

The wide availability of botnet building kits and so-called "stresser," "booter," and other DDoS-for-hire services has made it possible for almost anyone to launch a DDoS attack against targets of their choice. It is no longer just the nation-state actors and APT groups that have access to DDoS infrastructure these days, but common cybercriminals and script kiddies, too.

The implications of these trends are enormous for organizations. Here are some alarming data points:

About the Author(s)

Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

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