German DDoS mitigation company, Link11, has revealed that attacks on services have fallen by up to 60% since Webstresser.org was taken down last month. However, the firm says reasons for concern remain – and that many companies “remain deceived in thinking themselves secure.”

Head of the Link11 Security Operation Centre, Onur Cengiz, believes these numbers only represent a temporary reprieve and that organisations should still remain vigilant to attacks. He said: “Shutting down Webstresser.org was a massive strike against cyber crime. But even so, the number of attacks will only decrease temporarily.

“Experience has shown in recent years that for every DDoS attack marketplace taken out, multiple new platforms will pop up like the heads of a hydra.”

DDoS For Hire

Webstresser, an online marketplace for DDoS attack services, was taken down on April 24th in a coordinated police operation led by Europol. Raids across Europe resulted in a number of arrests and the website was taken down.

Boasting over 130,000 users, Webstresser is believed to have been responsible for over four million attacks in recent years, with users able to purchase these highly damaging services for as little as £13. Since Europol operations, Link11 claims “significantly fewer” DDoS attacks have occurred and are down 64% from the peak recorded number.

Additionally, Link11 registered significantly lower attack activity in the days following; which it says is “presumably down to the elimination of the source.”

A Growing Problem

DDoS attacks are a growing problem around the world. According to the Link11 DDoS Report for Q4 2017 there were 13,452 attacks on companies – That’s an average of 146 attacks a day. By the fourth quarter of 2017 the number of attacks had risen 116% from the year previous, and the duration of attacks had also increased from 1,242 to 1,675 hours.

Despite the rise of DDoS attacks, companies aren’t fully aware of the dangers posed by attackers. Link11 General Manager, Marc Wilczek, warns that too few companies are taking these threats seriously and aren’t reacting to a changing cyber environment. He said:

“Ignoring the threat of a DDoS attack is taking chances with your companies IT security. It is economically prudent to take steps to address attack risk as part of a pro-active IT security strategy.”