IT security is often thought of as being a cost to business, rather than a source of revenue, leading many organisations to see whether corners can be cut to leave security as an option, or to provide protection against only a few threats.

However, criminals have a vast array of attacks that they can employ against organisations for a wide variety of reasons. In this special feature, ZDNet takes a look at some of the more common threats to businesses, companies that have suffered the consequences of not being able to fend off the attacks, and what could have been done.

The attacks
Distributed denial of service
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are the hacktivist’s common choice of protest against issues, whether the hacker is in conflict with a company’s values, a political viewpoint, or simply because of what someone said.

Designed to disrupt normal services to a site by overwhelming it with requests, DDoS attacks do not result in a breach of information, but can cause significant harm to online businesses for as long as an attack continues.

Read the Full Article: Source – ZD Net
http://www.zdnet.com/article/it-security-is-not-an-optional-extra/

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