A recent survey has shown that nearly half the businesses at the receiving end of a DDoS attack claim to know the identities and the reasons of those behind the attacks. A significant portion of businesses point to competitors.

A recent survey has revealed that 48 percent of businesses claim to know the identity and motivation of those behind DDoS attacks launched against them. Some perpetrators, speaking to Kaspersky Lab note other criminals trying to distract or disrupt operations while a concurrent attack took place with criminals seeking a ransom.

Speaking to SC Magazine, ex-KPMG information protection and business resilience manager Matt White confirmed that Kaspersky Lab’s round up of DDoS stats is entirely likely. Referring to the recent DDoS attack that targeted the JANET network, he stated:

“It is well known that many university courses are now sponsored by large corporations, particularly PhD courses that require finding,” he noted, before adding, “we may never know who did this attack (the JANET network attack) but it isn’t impossible to imagine for example that this was another large educational organization that either wanted to steal IP such as research.”

With their survey, Kaspersky notes that one in eight companies as a part of its survey believe that competitors are behind the paid-for targeting DDoS attacks against them. In the business services industry, over a third of those surveyed believe that competitors are behind a DDoS attack.

Some of the perpatrators as pointed out by those surveyed include:

Criminals seeking to disrupt or distract while other concurrent attacks took place – 18 percent.

Criminals seeking to disrupt business services for a ransom – 17 percent.

Political activists – 11 percent.

Governmental or state powers – 5 percent.

Head of DDoS protection at Kaspersky, Evgeny Vigovsky said:

DDoS attacks are no longer just about cyber-criminals seeking to halt a company’s operations. Businesses are …. being affected by the underhand tactics of their competitors, who are commissioning DDoS attacks directly against them, damaging their operations and reputation.

He further added that every industry is vulnerable due to the existence of competition and that businesses would be wise to understand the repercussions of a DDoS attack with the necessary security measures in place to mitigate DDoS attacks.