Businesses Fear Damage to Reputation More Than Cost of Recovering From a DDoS Attack

Woburn, MA – May 27, 2016 –Kaspersky Lab announced today the results of research from Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, which found that consequences of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack extend far beyond financial considerations, damaging a company’s relationship with its customers. In fact, 37 percent of businesses who’ve experienced a DDoS attack claim that the attack had damaged their reputation, causing profound harm to customer trust.

Of the over 5,000 businesses who participated in the survey, 39 percent of respondents said losing clients and suffering reputational damage was also seen as one of the most feared consequences of a DDoS attack, more so than the costs incurred in fighting and recovering from an attack (28 percent), or the loss of revenue and business caused by the associated downtime (26 percent). On average, enterprises lose $417,000 as a result of a DDoS attack and SMBs lose $53,000.

In addition, over half of those surveyed had lost business data (57 percent) or access to business critical information (56 percent) as a result of a DDoS attack, and 42 percent claim that it had affected their ability to trade. The report also revealed the widespread consequences of this form of cyber threat at different levels of a business. For example, a third of businesses (33 percent) stated that a DDoS attack had damaged their credit rating and 35 percent reported an increase in their insurance premiums as a result.

“DDoS attacks are one of the most common forms of cybercrime in the world today,” said Evgeny Vigovsky, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, Kaspersky Lab. “Attackers often plan the timing of their attack in order to maximize financial damage. Our research shows that because this is such a visible form of attack, it is the impact on a company’s reputation and its credibility with customers that concerns businesses the most.”

Businesses and brands must adopt a proactive, rather than reactive, strategy for IT security. To help businesses stay one step ahead, Kaspersky DDoS Protection delivers total, integrated DDoS attack protection and mitigation, defending businesses at every stage of an attempted DDoS attack.

From analysis of online traffic through to sending alerts about possible threats and cleaning traffic, Kaspersky DDoS Protection provides everything a business needs to defend against and mitigate the effects of all types of DDoS attacks.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is one of the world’s fastest-growing cybersecurity companies and the largest that is privately-owned. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users (IDC, 2014). Since 1997 Kaspersky Lab has been an innovator in cybersecurity and provides effective digital security solutions and threat intelligence for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab is an international company, operating in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 400 million users worldwide.

Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

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Media Contact:
Denise Bertrand
781.503.1836
denise.bertrand@kaspersky.com