DDoS-as-a-decoy

identification of attacks usually within just minutes of the start of the attack. These tools are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, able to analyse what is considered a normal level of traffic for a site and what is not, and monitor all activity against this – taking into account peak times such as Christmas or holidays. A lot of the work to mitigate against DDoS attacks is therefore done behind the scenes by monitoring the networks.

Once a DDoS attack has been identified, the next stage of protection is for the network provider to channel the traffic away from the organisation’s website. The provider can announce a route across the network that is advertised almost instantly across the entire Internet. It draws in all the traffic destined for the target onto its own backbone, and re-routes it to a data scrubbing cluster where malicious traffic is disposed of and legitimate traffic delivered as normal. It means that any ‘real’ customers are still able to access the site or service they want to, without being impacted by the attack.

Safeguarding reputations and sensitive data For any online business, a disrupted service is damaging for the company’s reputation and brand image, partner relationships, and customer retention. For financial institutions the threat is far more tangible, as customers put their trust in these companies to keep their money and data safe. Anything that may jeopardise this trust will result in customers questioning their relationship with the organisation.

A DDoS attack in isolation will not affect a customer’s money and data – it may stop a service from being available, to a customer’s annoyance, but banks can be confident that their customers’ details stay safe. However, these attacks are now increasingly being used as a decoy. In other words, the old analogy “I’ll create a diversion while you crack the safe” is being adopted by cyber criminals. Criminals are using DDoS to distract the IT team while stealing or cloning mission critical sensitive data from other parts of the IT infrastructure. Without DDoS protection, IT teams have to focus all their efforts into dealing with the overload caused by the DDoS attack, thereby leaving other highly confidential and mission critical areas of the infrastructure left vulnerable to attack. But if DDoS mitigation is in place, this decoy approach fails as the attack is mitigated before it has any impact, eliminating the diversion.

Because of this new threat, financial organisations need to be on higher guard than ever before. While IT teams may be equipped to deal with the original DDoS attack, additional prudence is needed when it comes to committing resource to prevent DDoS-as-a-decoy attacks impacting upon the business and its customers. Ultimately, the larger and more advanced the network of the connectivity provider, the better equipped they will be to deal with DDoS attacks without becoming overwhelmed by the high levels of traffic. They will also be more likely to be able to help the IT teams mitigate against the threat of DDoS-as-a-decoy attacks.

companies means that the responsibility for DDoS mitigation can be trusted to a provider, who can provide comprehensive protection with minimum effort on the company’s part.

ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, reported that web based attacks increased by 36% over the course of last year, and this figure should be expected to rise again in 2012 and 2013.

What does the future hold? ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, reported that web based attacks increased by 36% over the course of last year1

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and this figure should be expected to rise again in 2012 and 2013. In a recent interview, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague revealed that Britain is targeted by up to 1,000 cyber attacks ever hour, and cyber crime is estimated to cost the country a massive £27 billion annually2

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Unfortunately, catching those instigating DDoS attacks is difficult as criminals are creating fake source addresses that are hard to track back, and the ability to carry out DDoS attacks is becoming easier with networks of zombie computers or ‘botnets’ even able to be purchased by the hour. However, the protection options available to

1EU and banks stage DDoS cyber-attack exercise, BBC News Online, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19828855 2Britain is target of up to 1,000 cyber attacks every hour, The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9624655/ Britain-is-target-of-up-to-1000-cyber-attacks-every-hour.html

The increased potential for financial organisations to be targets, added to the chance that these DDoS attacks may be a precursor to data theft, means financial institutes need to reassess the level of protection they have in place. For those who already have some form of DDoS protection in place, the question they must ask themselves is does their provider have big enough networks to deal with the new size of the attacks, with cyber criminals now looking to join their ‘botnets’ with other cyber criminals? However, large-scale suppliers such as Tata Communications are able to absorb malicious Internet traffic to almost unlimited levels, and are sophisticated enough to differentiate between malicious and normal traffic, allowing genuine traffic through which is important for customers. Trust is the biggest asset financial institutes have, so guarding against the threat from cyber criminals who seek to take that away from them is a small price to pay.

Eric Hemmendinger