Can cell phones be the source of DDoS attacks?

The digital landscape for businesses has changed a lot in recent years. Businesses have migrated to the cloud and the work-from-anywhere trend is reshaping corporate networks. With this comes increased security risks, especially when employees use their personal cell phones for work. Mobile devices have become the source of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, particularly through compromised apps.

These attacks can go on for a long time behind the scenes without security teams picking up on any issues until it is too late. The longest reported attack in 2021 was three weeks. During such an event, business operations are seriously affected, resulting in a loss of productivity and revenue.

As business networks continue to grow and evolve, IT teams need to ensure they have the right level of DDoS protection, including protection for employee devices. Employees need to be able to securely connect to business networks from any device in any location, without worrying whether their cell phone will become the source of a DDoS attack.

What happens during a DDoS attack?

In a DDoS attack, networks are flooded with requests from multiple devices. Cybercriminals launch attacks from thousands of devices, each device sending several requests per second. DDoS attacks disable networks because the system cannot process so many requests and this leads to networks shutting down.

It is difficult for traditional cyber security software to identify such an attack because the requests appear to come from real users. There are different types of DDoS attack, but each has the same intention of overwhelming the target site. DDoS attacks block legitimate traffic and shut down digital infrastructure.

DDoS attacks involving cell phones

A common DDoS attack involving mobile devices is a slow-rate DDoS attack. In the past, cell phones didn’t have high speed connections and this meant that cybercriminals had to build momentum slowly. The first low-rate DDoS attack from mobiles was reported in 2015. During this event, 650 000 smartphones sent 4.5 billion requests to the target network.

These days, the processing power of smartphones is on par with some desktop computers. Given the ubiquity of mobile devices that connect to business networks, businesses need to ensure that these endpoints are secure and cybersecurity tools can pick up on suspicious activity that stems from compromised cell phones.

Launching a DDoS attack from cell phones

So how exactly do cybercriminals use call phones in a DDoS attack? The most common way is to infect the mobile device with malicious code via an app. Some mobile apps may lack appropriate security features, so if these are installed, the user may inadvertently be connecting their device to a botnet. Through malware, hackers gain control of the cell phone, often without the user even knowing.

The security concerns around apps is especially significant for industries such as banking and e-commerce. Luckily, South African banks have shown resilience to DDoS, mostly thanks to robust cyber defense strategies and next generation DDoS protection, such as that offered by SEACOM Business.

Preventing DDoS attacks from cell phones

A common way of dealing with corrupted cell phones is to blacklist them. This approach, however, has its shortcomings. Normal users might be blacklisted and unable to access mobile networks. What’s more, new devices are constantly added to botnets so blacklisting won’t be effective enough to prevent these cell phones being used in a DDoS attack.

Instead, what’s needed is intelligent protection using machine learning technologies. This way, security tools constantly improve their response time and offer real-time detection and mitigation. This reduces the interruption to operations and suspicious traffic will automatically be filtered out. SEACOM Business offers DDoS protection to South African organisations that includes the latest technologies that enables automatic detection and prevention of DDoS attacks.

Improving cell phone security

Getting enterprise-grade DDoS protection is the first step in protecting business networks from these attacks. Businesses should consider taking additional measures to protect their networks, including improved staff training and updated policies around cyber security. For example, there should be policies around downloading apps on devices and the use of company virtual private networks (VPNs).

VPNs hide your IP address, making it difficult for DDoS attacks to affect you. Cloud-based VPNs have become increasingly popular for businesses looking for a way to give employees secure access to business networks from any location and any device.

DDoS Protect with SEACOM Business

Research has shown that DDoS attacks have grown by 300% in Africa since 2019. As a result, IT leaders need to take cyber security seriously in order to keep business networks up and running at all times. Cyber security measures need to accommodate for the widespread use of cell phones and other mobile devices.

As part of our cyber security solutions for South African enterprises, SEACOM Business offers DDoS protection software that shields business networks from all types of DDoS attack. The cyber security experts at SEACOM Business are on hand to help you choose the appropriate level of protection for your business, including whether you need on-demand or continuous protection.

We offer hybrid protection that covers both cloud-based and on-premise servers, and for all the devices that connect to your business network, including cell phones. Our 24/7 technical support gives businesses the peace of mind that their network is fully-protected at all times. For more information or to get a quote for our cyber security solutions, email us at marketing@seacom.com or leave us a message.

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