AT&T Business
Global DDoS Extortion Campaigns
The AT&T Cybersecurity Threat Management Operations team has seen a sharp increase in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the last few weeks. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)1, and expert security organizations have validated these events as a real threat to the business community. Cybercrime groups are targeting various organizations all over the world by threatening to launch DDoS attacks against them unless they pay thousands of dollars in Bitcoin.

Over 23,000 New DDoS Attacks take place every day
Targeted companies face the agonizing decision- comply with the ransom request or risk lost revenue, downtime, and reputational damage. Even if organizations pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that the attacks would cease; a quick payday may even encourage an attacker to attack again.

DDoS attacks are so common because the tools used to initiate them are cheap, easily available, quickly deployed, and can be incredibly lucrative for the attacker.
 
Recommend a Risk-based Cyber Posture Assessment AT&T Solutions to address DDoS attacks
  • Reactive DDoS (starts at just $98/month)
  • DDoS Defense (transport agnostic solution available)
  • Emergency DDoS Mitigation for customers currently under DDoS attacks, and don’t have DDoS protection.
  • Prolexic DDoS (for data centers & web farms)

AT&T offers an expedited turn up service for customers that would like to deploy AT&T DDoS solutions ASAP and are not currently under DDoS attack.3

 

Qualifying questions to ask your customers
  • What would you do if you were under a DDoS attack? Do you have a plan that includes mitigation capabilities?
  • How would you quantify your loss if business operations were shut down for 1 hour, 8 hours, or 24 hours? Gartner estimates this cost to be $5,600/min!4
  • What’s your protocol for responding to a ransom note threatening to unleash a DDoS attack?

Note: Even if customers have Cybersecurity Insurance- many policies require a level of due diligence, risk assessments, and having proper tools in place. DDoS Defense is still recommended for customers with Cybersecurity Insurance.
 
Additional Education on DDoS
Types of DDoS Attacks Explained  |  DDoS Attack Prevention & Protection Explained
 
 
Arrow   For more information on Cybersecurity or any other AT&T solution, contact your AT&T Master or AT&T Channel Manager.  
 
 
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  1. https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/current-activity/2020/09/04/dos-and-ddos-attacks-against-multiple-sectors
  2. https://www.zdnet.com/article/16-ddos-attacks-take-place-every-60-seconds-rates-reach-622-gbps/
  3. Customers currently experiencing a DDoS attack will need to purchase emergency DDoS mitigation.
  4. https://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2014/07/16/the-cost-of-downtime/