crime
BSI fears cyber attacks on retailers on Black Friday
Arne Schönbohm (l), President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and Boris Pistorius (SPD), Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, speak at a press conference on a cooperation agreement on cybersecurity between the State of Lower Saxony and the BSI. Photo: Moritz Frankenberg / dpa
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Big deal of the year is approaching for online retailers. But the discount campaigns on Back Friday and Cyber Monday should not only attract customers, but also cyber criminals.
According to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), retailers are at risk of massive cyberattacks this year on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday discount days as well as during the Christmas business.
The BSI therefore advised online retailers in particular to prepare suitable defensive measures on Wednesday.
Above all, the BSI warned of DDoS attacks, in which the IT infrastructures of the retailers are overloaded with millions of hits within a very short time and are therefore no longer accessible to customers. “In the past few weeks we have observed DDoS attacks with up to 21.8 million requests per second (MRPS). This corresponds to an increase of 28 percent compared to previously measured values, ”said BSI President Arne Schönbohm.
It is to be feared that these attack technologies would also be used for DDoS extortion in the high-turnover days. Previous protective measures against DDoS attacks should therefore be adapted to the new capacities of cyber criminals, the expert recommended.
Cyber criminals often use infected home routers, unprotected servers and systems compromised by Trojans for DDoS attacks.