The financial impact of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is rising, totalling over £86,000 for SMBs and costing enterprises up to £1.6m, per attack on average.
The financial impact of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is rising, totalling over £86,000 for SMBs and costing enterprises up to £1.6m, per attack on average. The skyrocketing costs of picking up the pieces of such incidents and the associated loss of lucrative business opportunities shows that now, more than ever, organisations cannot afford to leave themselves vulnerable to attack without it severely affecting their wallets.
Kaspersky Lab’s IT Security Risks Survey 2017* shows that the average cost of a DDoS attack on organisations has risen dramatically over the past year. Whether as the result of a single incident or when DDoS has formed part of a multi-faceted cyberattack, the financial implications of reacting to DDoS now stands at over £88k for SMBs, compared to £76K in 2016. For enterprises, the cost has soared– from over £1.1m in 2016 to £1.6 this year. The rising financial costs of these attacks, coupled with unquantifiable impacts such as reputational damage, is crippling for many organisations.
When asked about the financial breakdown of a standalone DDoS attack, or where it formed part of a multi-attack assault, most organisations (33 per cent) quoted the cost incurred in fighting the attack and restoring services as the main burden, whilst a quarter (25 per cent) cited money spent investing in an offline or back-up system. A further 23 per cent said that a loss of revenue and business opportunities occurred as a direct result of attacks, whilst 22 per cent listed the loss of reputation amongst clients and partners as another, indirect consequence of attack.
Despite the financial risks, only 19 per cent of organisations questioned use specialised anti-DDoS solutions to prevent them from becoming victims of DDoS attacks. For the 20 per cent of businesses who don’t use such measures, they claim that it is due to the cost of a solution not outweighing the risk. However, our figures show a modest price tag for protection, in comparison to the cost of an attack. For example, the price of an anti-DDoS solution can stand at just £10k for an SMB per year and around £35K for enterprises – representing a small proportion of the cost to an organisation should an attack take place.
“DDoS attacks, both standalone or as part of an attack arsenal, can cost an organisation thousands, if not millions – that’s without counting reputational damage and lost clients and partners as a result. It is therefore wise to invest in protective measures in advance,” comments Kirill Ilganaev, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection at Kaspersky Lab. “It is also important to choose reliable specialised security solutions that are based on cybersecurity expertise and tailored to fight the most sophisticated DDoS attacks, which are continuing to grow.”
To help businesses defend themselves from DDoS attacks – regardless of attack origin – Kaspersky DDoS Protection provides a complete, integrated solution that keeps businesses running smoothly by protecting them from the most complex and high-volume attacks. Further information is available here.
*The IT Security Risks research is an annual survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab in conjunction with B2B International. In 2017 we asked more than 5,200 representatives of small, medium (50 to 999) and large (1000+) businesses from 29 countries about their views on IT security and the real incidents that they have had to deal with.
