Arbor Networks' Third-Annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report
Highlights Botnets and Increased Size of DDoS Attacks as Growing
Threat to ISPs
VoIP Vulnerabilities and Rise of Managed Services Also Highlighted in
Report
LEXINGTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/17/07 -- Arbor Networks, a
leading provider of network security and operational performance for
global business networks, released its third-annual Worldwide
Infrastructure Security Report today in cooperation with the network
security and operations communities. For the first time, botnets
surpassed distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) as the top
threat identified by service providers.
Arbor Networks has long-standing customer relationships with more
than 70% of the global service provider community, which enabled the
company to gather input from 70 self-classified tier-1, tier-2 and
hybrid IP network operators in North America, Europe and Asia for
this year's report. Based on a 12-month period from July 2006 through
June 2007, the results of the survey are designed to provide
practical data to network operators so that they can make informed
decisions about the use of network security technology to protect
their mission-critical infrastructure.
Key findings from the report include:
Bots Overtake DDoS as Chief Security Concern
Unlike Arbor's previous editions of the survey, bots and botnets are
now considered the most significant operational threat by ISPs, with
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks coming in a close
second. This year, a much larger percentage of the respondent pool
believed bots and botnets to be a larger threat than DDoS attacks,
perhaps providing some indication that botnet activity -- beyond just
that of DDoS -- is more frequently impacting network security
operations.
DDoS Attacks Going Pro
While mid-level DDoS attacks have plagued the Internet since 2000,
survey respondents report a widening gap between common mid-level
"amateur" attacks and multi-gigabit "professional" efforts involving
tens of thousands of zombie hosts. Most surveyed ISPs reported
significant improvements in the sophistication and coordination of
DDoS attacks.
Attacks Outpace ISP Network Growth
During the last two years, most top-tier service providers completed
significant investments in backbone infrastructure -- upgrading links
from OC12/48 (2 gigabits per second; Gbps) to OC192 (10 Gbps).
However, surveyed ISPs reported sustained attack rates exceeding 24
Gbps -- more than double the size of these recently upgraded links.
Given that most individual core Internet backbone links today are no
larger than 10 Gbps, most of the larger attacks today still inflict
collateral damage on infrastructure upstream from the targets
themselves.
VoIP is Vulnerable
Only 20 percent of ISPs surveyed currently have specific tools or
mechanisms to monitor and detect threats against VoIP. This finding
points to a vulnerability that service providers must address in the
coming months.
Rise of Managed Security Services
As more mission-critical services are being converged onto IP-based
networks, the demands on service providers to provide "clean pipe"
services is escalating. This year's survey found a significant
increase in the number of service providers offering managed DDoS
detection and mitigation services. More than one third of surveyed
providers reported offering DDoS managed security services; another
one third indicated they plan to roll out such services in the next
24 months to better protect the networks of enterprise customers.
Conclusions
"Given that over half of the surveyed ISPs believe that they can
effectively mitigate most Internet attacks against their backbone
infrastructure and customers, many ISPs now believe they are ahead of
the curve," said Danny McPherson, Arbor Networks chief research
officer. "But all of this ISP optimism about infrastructure security
should be tempered by the survey data on emerging critical
infrastructure. Over half of surveyed providers said they had no
means to either detect or mitigate attacks against DNS, and close to
90 percent have no means to protect critical VoIP infrastructure.
One thing we know about cyber criminals is that they adapt and look
for weaknesses. When it comes to network security, complacency
should never be part of the equation."
For more information, please see the following:
-- Podcast Interview with Verizon Business on the key findings of
the
report http://www.arbornetworks.com/podcasts
-- Arbor Networks Blog Post
http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2007/09/zombies-worms-and-flooded-oc192s-the-2007-infrastructure-security-report/
-- Narrated Powerpoint Presentation
http://www.arbor.net/images/Webcasts/WWISP/
-- Arbor Network's third-annual Worldwide ISP Infrastructure
Security
Report:
http://www.arbornetworks.com/report
About Arbor Networks
Arbor Networks delivers network security and operational performance
for global business networks. Arbor's Network Behavioral Analysis
(NBA) solutions are based on the Arbor Peakflow platform, providing
real-time views of network activity which enable organizations to
instantly protect against worms, DDoS attacks, insider misuse, and
traffic and routing instability, as well as to segment and harden
networks from future threats. Today, Arbor Networks' customer base is
comprised of a broad range of service provider and enterprise
customers within a variety of industries spanning the globe,
demonstrating the depth and breadth of the company's security
expertise. All rely on the Arbor Peakflow platform to prevent costly
downtime, enable network cleanup and increase customer trust.
To learn more about Arbor Networks, please visit:
http://www.arbornetworks.com. To learn more about the Arbor Security
Engineering & Response Team (ASERT) -- the company's security
research arm -- please visit the ASERT blog:
http://asert.arbornetworks.com.
Note to Editors: Arbor Networks, Peakflow and the Arbor Networks
logo are trademarks of Arbor Networks, Inc. All other brands may be
the trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Arbor Networks
Kevin Whalen
Director, Public Relations
781-464-1220
kwhalen@arbor.net