Posted on July 8, 2023 at 7:55 AM
Hacking Campaigns Can Cause Significant Harm In The Workplace
Hacking campaigns are becoming more prevalent in the workplace. However, in some cases, the level of sophistication in such attacks is low. Nevertheless, website takedowns, despite the level of sophistication used by the hackers, have become the go-to tool of choice for hackers in recent months.
Cyberattacks are becoming more prevalent
A report by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned about the growth in such attacks. An advisory posted by CISA recently warned about the reports of increased distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These hacking campaigns are targeting several organizations across different sectors.
Last month, Microsoft released a statement saying that a DDoS attack had affected several services, including Azure, OneDrive, and Outlook services. The Anonymous Sudan hacktivist group said that it was behind the attack. While the attacks have since been mitigated, they caused significant damage to the organization.
In recent years, hacker groups have been launching multiple DDoS attacks. Such attacks are aimed at taking websites offline by overwhelming the servers with much traffic. The massive amount of malicious bot traffic makes it nearly impossible for the server to remain online, which will be detrimental to an organization.
Over the last few months, the number of DDoS campaigns has increased significantly. Hackers that have a high level of sophistication have started relying on DDoS attacks to conduct larger hacking campaigns to cause further damage to the victims.
One of the researchers at the Rapid7 cybersecurity company, Erick Galinkin, said that the platform was operating through a fragmented approach that supported a transition to APIs, the cloud and other forms of networks. What was currently being seen in the market was increased cases where hackers are now targeting the websites in a manner that will cause the most damage.
DDoS attacks are increasingly becoming a key focus for cybersecurity researchers and companies. The cybersecurity systems that have been put in place are increasingly flagging these attacks to guarantee that websites remain online and that they are not becoming more targeted.
DDoS attacks do not require a high level of sophistication as they are usually conducted by hacking groups that do not have a high level of sophistication. These attacks are usually conducted by hacking groups that are seeking attention from the media or the ones that want to make a name for themselves.
DDoS attacks typically do not last long. In 2022, 89% of the DDoS attacks reported during the year lasted for less than one hour, according to a report by Microsoft. DDoS attacks have been a tool of choice for hacktivist groups that want to make a political statement. Such hacking groups include Anonymous Sudan and Killnet, which have used DDoS attacks to run hacktivist campaigns.
DDoS attacks are becoming larger and longer
According to the StormWall cybersecurity company, the total number of DDoS attacks increased by 47% during the first quarter of 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2022. The report noted that much growth in these attacks was concentrated in the finance sector and e-commerce companies.
DDoS campaigns have also become larger and longer, according to a report by Cloudflare. Cloudflare is a company that offers DDoS protection. Part of the reason why DDoS attacks have become more prevalent is because of the increased use of botnets.
Botnets are networks of malware-infected computers that are controlled by a hacker. These attacks have become easier to launch and deploy for hacking attacks. He noted that currently, an individual can create a 14-million-strong botnet by infecting electronic devices. As such, the attack surface for creating these bots is larger than has ever been seen.
Some hacker groups have combined the ease at which DDoS attacks are launched and the financial benefits of ransomware campaigns. Ransomware groups or hackers using DDoS campaigns to target organizations usually demand a ransom to decrypt files or prevent a data leak.
The Cloudflare report noted that 16% of the surveyed organizations said they faced a ransom DDoS attack where the hackers demanded a ransom to stop the attack or avoid a botnet campaign.
The havoc caused by DDoS attacks usually depends on the type of organization that has been targeted and how long that organization has been targeted. Hacking campaigns against e-commerce sites rely on the website to generate revenue, with the effect being large than an attack on the payment processing portal of a hospital where such an attack could not affect the core operations.
Companies need to remain vigilant and prepare for such attacks by having a contingency plan. Such plans include having backup servers that the company will switch to in case the main server is taken offline in an attack. CISA also recommends that organizations have a DDoS protection service in place and take an inventory of the assets that are exposed to the internet.
