Top Reasons that DDoS Protection Services is More Crucial Than Ever

by Ritika Singh on May 18, 2021

DDoS attack protection is comparable to the airbag systems in cars or life jackets on airplanes. You do not realize and appreciate its true value until it is actually required. DDoS Protection Services enable organizations to keep their applications/ websites available round the clock by monitoring traffic and preventing distributed denial of service attacks. DDoS Protection helps organizations to be well-equipped for the lurking threat of DDoS attacks. With the 24×7 availability of the application/website offered by DDoS protection services, organizations can rest assured of having a constant safeguard.

In this article, we will deep dive into the undeniable reasons why DDoS attack protection services are more crucial than ever today.

Why are DDoS Protection Services More Crucial Than Ever?

DDoS Attacks are More Common Today

The growing digital shift over the past few years has only made DDoS attacks more common. In 2020, there were over 10 million attacks, the highest ever in a single year. Compared to the 8.5 million attacks in 2019, there was a 17% year-on-year increase.

Today, botnets-for-hire and DDoS-for-hire services are readily available on the dark web. Given the low barriers to entry and the high potential of monetary gains, low-level and novice threat actors find it easier to launch DDoS attacks and using it as a smokescreen for other malicious activities.

In fact, DDoS services on an average cost USD 25 in 2017. Today, it costs less than USD 7 on average! This means launching powerful DDoS attacks against unprepared and underprepared organizations is rather easy and inexpensive.

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Even for organizations that are well-equipped to tackle these attacks, 100% protection is not feasible. There is a small chance that they would become victims of DDoS attacks and it is better to be prepared to minimize the damage.

DDoS Attacks are Becoming More Sophisticated, Lethal, and Vicious

The year 2020 saw the largest DDoS attack on record against an AWS Client – a 2.3Tbps volumetric attack using UDP reflection. This attack was 44% larger than most volumetric attacks which are typically above 100 GBps and above in magnitude. There was an upsurge of 275% in such volumetric attacks last year. The availability of insecure servers, services, components, and applications across the internet coupled with continued innovation by threat actors have made larger attacks possible.

There aren’t just volumetric attacks anymore; much more sophisticated attacks which are under 5 GB in magnitude are on the rise too. In 2020, these smaller attacks increased by over 200%. What makes these attacks particularly vicious is that they are so small that they can effortlessly bypass traffic thresholds to erode the performance and availability of the application.

Today, attackers are deploying more complex and sophisticated attacks that are shorter in duration. It not just gives organizations less time to defend themselves but makes it challenging too. The year 2020 also saw a fall in the duration of attacks by 51%. Additionally, 92% of attacks were less than an hour long. Further, attacks using 15+ attack vectors have risen by 2851% since 2017. There has been a sharp fall of 43% in single vector attacks in 2020.

Given this scenario, a generic, one-size-fits-all solution will not help. A managed and intelligent DDoS Protection Service like AppTrana that is customized to the needs and context of the organization is necessary. AppTrana provides always-on, instantaneous, comprehensive, and multi-layered protection against all kinds of DDoS attacks including Layer 7, protocol, and volumetric attacks. They enable organizations to focus on their core business resting assured of app security and 24×7 availability.

The Impact of the Ongoing Global Pandemic

The large-scale and sudden digital shift caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the major contributory factors to the rise in DDoS attacks. With more people shopping, studying and working online on weak and insecure home networks and insufficiently-protected devices created vulnerabilities that threat actors could easily exploit.

Healthcare organizations, educational services, financial services and e-commerce verticals saw a spike in DDoS attacks in 2020. The pandemic-led rise in online gambling and gaming caused an upsurge in the attacks targeted against these sectors too.

Sky-Rocketing Cost of Successful Attacks

DDoS attacks are known to cost USD 5600 per minute on average! The financial burden and reputational damage caused by such attacks could be hard to recover for many organizations. The deployment of distributed denial of service attack prevention services is an investment today.

The Way Forward

Distributed denial of service attacks are here to stay, especially with the growing digital transformation promoted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They are more common, much easier to execute, and increasing in sophistication and lethality. The cost of DDoS attacks is upsurging as well. By choosing the right DDoS Protection service, organizations can fortify security and always ensure the full availability of their applications/ websites.