10/02/2022
How do cyber-attacks convert into money, and how much do infrastructure outages in different business areas? Let's start with the big numbers. Six months ago, hackers pulled off the biggest cryptocurrency heist ever, stealing $613 million worth of tokens from the Poly Network platform. They later returned some of the money, which further shocked the company's employees.
In September 2021, several Internet telephony operators were targeted by large-scale DDoS attacks. Thus, VoIP.ms refused to pay a ransom of $4 million and fought to rescue its services during the whole week. They had to urgently appeal to professional protection technologies, hire individual experts and purchase additional equipment to survive the enormous load. Meanwhile, Bandwidth.com escaped the extortion, but it lost many customers and about $12 million in profits due to the attacks.
Telecom operators are often targeted. But attackers also focus on retailers, financial services, and IT companies. Online retailers can lose thousands of dollars, especially on Black Friday or holidays. And large data centers lose an average of $12,000 per minute, with the most considerable losses seen in the industries of hospitality, transportation, the public sector, and media.
The global average shows that companies can face $4-6 million damage from critical data loss. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that in 2025 the world's citizens will spend $10.5 trillion to combat cybercrime and the consequences of attacks.
Here's what you can do to minimize the risk of losing profits in case of cyberattacks:
- Transfer as little data as possible and store it on secure devices.
- Check the sources of unfamiliar program files before opening them.
- Use strong passwords and update your devices regularly.
- Prepare an emergency plan and a list of services that can be useful if a cyber threat occurs.
And most importantly, stay aware of current events.
Regards,
The DDoS-Guard Team
