Number of DDoS attacks doubled before Black Friday
Experts at StormWall, a company that specializes in protecting businesses from cyber threats, have noticed a spike in hacking activity in the second half of November this year. On the eve of Black Friday and the big closing sales, attackers began targeting online stores in greater numbers. From November 15 to November 21, StormWall’s security systems recorded 2 times more DDoS attacks on e-commerce sector customers than in the previous week of November 8 to 14. The strength of the attacks was low, ranging from 15 to 150 thousand requests per second over the HTTP protocol, but even this strength is enough to take down a website without protection.
Experts link the high level of hacker activity to the approach of “Black Friday”. Many retailers announced discounts on November 11, long before Black Friday, people started shopping, sales increased, and attackers became active. The main reasons for DDoS attacks on e-commerce were the fierce competition at the end of the year, revenge from dissatisfied customers, and the appearance of a large number of hackers during the pandemic.
StormWall experts warn that the peak of hacking activity will occur during “Black Friday”, which will begin on November 26, 2021 and last for 3 days. During this time, there will be maximum discounts in online stores, so the hype is inevitable. Cyber criminals will try to make the most of this situation. By organizing an attack during the sale period, an attacker can demand a large sum of money to stop the attack.
“During Black Friday, the number of cyber attacks and other fraudulent activity traditionally increases all over the world. It is very important that retailers have time to prepare for the sales period and be able to defend against even the strongest DDoS attacks executed through botnets. We recommend using professional solutions to protect websites from DDoS attacks in combination with cloud Web Application Firewall, to reliably secure Internet resources during the sale period,” said Ramil Khantimirov, CEO and co-founder of StormWall.