THIS INDUSTRY IS UNDER ATTACK

Craig Lusher, Senior Product Specialist – Secure, at Continent 8 Technologies, shares cyber-attack numbers from the fourth quarter of 2021 which show a rise in the volume and size of DDoS attacks being launched against online gambling organisations

If you were unsure of the level of the threat posed by cyber-attacks, allow me to share with you some headline numbers from the fourth quarter of 2021.

Throughout the three-month period, Continent 8 successfully blocked 641 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against our customers, up from 546 in the previous quarter.

It is worth noting that the Q3 number was more than double that recorded in the second quarter.

During Q4, we also noted that 54 of the observed attacks had repeat attacks within 24 hours of the first. One client was subject to an unprecedented 349 attacks during the period.

Worryingly, we not only saw a rise in the number of attacks being launched but also the size of the attacks, which breached 1Tbps for the second quarter running. The largest attack size registered during Q4 was 1.9Tbps – a record for us. This impacted average attack size, which increase from 48.9Gbps in Q3 to 55.8Gbps.

December saw the highest number of attacks with 406 in total, which isn’t necessarily a surprise given it was the festive holidays, with hackers seeing this as an opportunity to launch attacks. While Kahnawake was the location subject to the highest number of attacks during the three months..

Our customers were under attack for a total of 50 hours, which was down from the staggering 326 hours they were under attack for in the third quarter.

These numbers show that cyber-attacks are a huge threat to businesses of all sizes and that now is absolutely the time for organisations to establish sufficient strategies to protect themselves.

No business is immune, and the damage caused by a successful cyber-attack can be hard to recover from, both reputationally and financially. In fact, the estimated cost of a data breach in 2020 was $3.6m.

This is a figure that should make any organisation sit up and take note and ask the question – ‘just how vulnerable is the business to an attack?’

To good news is that the threats posed by cyber-attacks and in particular DDoS attacks can be mitigated and here at Continent 8 we suggest taking the following steps:

Ensure your primary forms of protection are in place and are as robust as possible.

Primary defences include utilising a private network for hosting and communication, enterprise DDoS and Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection and ensuring your public and private cloud environments are secure.

Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Given the new normal of remote and hybrid working practices, ensuring an organisation’s infrastructure is not breached, no matter where the perimeter may now be, is crucial.

Just as crucial is ensuring if something untoward happens (such as a breach), the appropriate teams are immediately notified.

If it has not been done already, it’s essential to find out how endpoint protection and security event management can be applied to your infrastructure.

It has been widely reported that phishing attacks, and other scams targeted to exploit our natural human fears, have increased significantly over the past 12 months.

As such, companies need to ensure that all staff members, from the board to senior executives and all employees, are trained when it comes to cybersecurity, DDoS, ransomware and phishing.

Throughout last year, we saw quarter-on-quarter records in the number of DDoS and cyber-attacks being launched against our customers.

The number of attacks recorded in Q4 was more than triple the number recorded in Q1 and, unfortunately, this is a trend we expect to continue throughout the coming year.

That is why it is vital that organisations strengthen their defences today if they are to give themselves the best opportunity to successfully protect themselves against an attack.

An attack that is more likely a case of when and not if.

We’re known for pulling off great networking evenings and 2021 held some of our most memorable events.

From intimate dinners to relaxed get-togethers, last year stood out as one of our busiest, with global events lighting up the night sky throughout the year.

Take a look back at some of the highlight gallery moments from a year of milestone moments.