Independent research report warns that online gambling sites are prime DDoS targets
News on 8 Dec 2017
News on 8 Dec 2017
Independent web research and security company Imperva Incapsula has warned the international online gambling industry that it is a prime target for DDoS attackers, revealing that in the third quarter of 2017 internet gambling websites were the subject of a third of all Distributed Denial of Services assaults.
The company addressed network layer attacks, describing these as an assault against either the network or transport layers (OSI layers 3 and 4), with the goal of causing network saturation by expending much of the available bandwidth.
Such attacks have now become almost commonplace, Incapsula reports, attracting hackers because the sites are reliant on web revenue and are thus exposed to extortion attempts.
In some cases, the company observes, attacks are motivated by rivals in the competitive world of internet gambling.
Online operations using cyber currencies like Bitcoin are especially attractive to DDoS attackers since such virtual currencies have become more widespread in use, and Bitcoin in particular has seen meteoric rises in value (currently around $16,000).
