NetScout Systems. Inc. - Experts & Thought Leaders

LiveAction, a pioneering provider in end-to-end network security and performance visibility, has announced pivotal appointments to its EMEA leadership team. The strategic hires of Ian Gallagher as Regional Sales Director for Northern Europe, Guntram Allfen as Regional Sales Director for Central Europe, and Sebastien Texier as Regional Sales Director for France, underscore LiveAction's commitment to accelerating growth and customer success across the European region. Strengthening LiveAction's connection Gallagher brings a wealth of expertise in networking and security from his enterprise roles With over two decades of selling experience in enterprise and global markets, Ian Gallagher brings a wealth of expertise in networking and security from his enterprise roles at VMware, Extreme Networks and Brocade. Guntram Allfen, who previously led sales for the DACH region at Avi Networks (acquired by VMware in 2019), has a deep understanding of network and security offerings, coupled with his experience at NetIQ, NetScout, and Riverbed.  Sebastien Texier, an accomplished veteran with over 25 years of experience in networks, analytics, and cloud computing, joins LiveAction after a successful stint at ThousandEyes, a Cisco company, further strengthening LiveAction's connection to the Cisco ecosystem. Unparalleled network intelligence “Ian, Guntram, and Sebastien are exceptional sales pioneers with proven success in delivering value to customers and partners in the European market," said Carlos Ferro, Senior Vice President and General Manager of International at LiveAction.  “Their appointments strengthen our commitment to providing unparalleled network intelligence and support to enterprises across the region as they navigate increasingly complex networking and security challenges.” Comprehensive network visibility As enterprises embrace digital transformation and adopt hybrid cloud architectures, the need for comprehensive network visibility and performance management has become paramount. LiveAction's industry-pioneering solutions empower organisations to gain end-to-end visibility and unified control over their networks, applications, and security posture.  With a growing presence and deep expertise in the European market, LiveAction is well-positioned to support enterprises in optimising their network infrastructures and ensuring business continuity.

NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC., a provider of performance management, cybersecurity, and DDoS protection solutions announced findings from its 5th Anniversary DDoS Threat Intelligence Report that points to a new era of multi-vector attacks focused on taking down victims using application-layer and botnet-based direct-path attacks.   Attack frequency has increased tenfold since NETSCOUT’s first report in 2005. HTTP/HTTPS application-layer attacks With over one billion websites worldwide, HTTP/HTTPS application-layer attacks have increased by 487 percent since 2019, with the most significant surge in the second half of 2022.   Much of the increase comes from the pro-Russian group Killnet and others that explicitly target websites. Attacks of this nature preceded the Ukraine invasion, knocking out critical financial, government, and media sites. Addressing the DDoS threat landscape DDoS attacks threaten organisations worldwide and challenge their ability to deliver critical services" “DDoS attacks threaten organisations worldwide and challenge their ability to deliver critical services,” said Richard Hummel, Threat Intelligence Lead at NETSCOUT.   Richard Hummel adds, “With multi-terabit-per-second attacks now commonplace, and bad actors’ arsenals continuing to grow in sophistication and complexity, organisations need a strategy that can quickly adapt to the dynamic nature of the DDoS threat landscape.” Additional findings Additional highlights from NETSCOUT’s findings include: Peak DDoS alert traffic in a single day reached as high as 436 petabits and more than 75 trillion packets. Service providers rigorously scrubbed a large percentage of this traffic, while enterprises eliminated an additional daily aggregate average of 345 terabytes of unwanted traffic. Direct-path attacks have increased by 18 percent over the past three years, while traditional reflection/amplification attacks decreased by nearly the same, highlighting the need for a hybrid defence approach to weather the fluctuating attack methodology. The U.S. national security sector experienced a massive 16,815 percent increase in attacks related to the pro-Russia Killnet group, including a spike in attacks after President Biden’s public remarks at the G7 Summit and another spike the same day the French and U.S. presidents re-affirmed their support for Ukraine. NETSCOUT ASERT analysts tracked over 1.35 million bots from malware families like Mirai, Meris, and Dvinis in 2022, with enterprises receiving over 350,000 security-related alerts with botnet involvement. By contrast, service providers received approximately 60,000 alerts where bots were present. Carpet-bombing attacks, a technique that simultaneously targets entire IP address ranges, increased by 110 percent from the first to the second half of 2022, with most attacks against ISP networks. A barrage of DDoS attacks hammered EMEA’s optical instrument and lens manufacturing sector, resulting in a 14,137 percent increase, mainly against one major distributor with over 6,000 attacks over four months. DDoS attacks on the wireless telecommunications industry have grown 79 percent since 2020, primarily due to the increase in 5G wireless to the home. It accounts for 20 percent of all DDoS attacks for a specific industry, second only to wired telecommunications carriers. NETSCOUT's DDoS Threat Intelligence Report ATLAS collects DDoS attack statistics from an average of 93 countries daily NETSCOUT's DDoS Threat Intelligence Report covers the latest trends and activities in the DDoS threat landscape. It incorporates data from NETSCOUT's ATLAS part of the company’s Visibility Without Borders approach along with expert insights from ASERT, NETSCOUT's security research team.   ATLAS was built over two decades through work with more than 500 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to create a sensor network that provides visibility into more than 400 Tbps of international transit every second of every day. As a result, ATLAS collects DDoS attack statistics from an average of 93 countries daily, encompassing over 50 percent of the world's internet traffic. Automatically detect, adapt, and block threat activity The visibility and insights compiled from the global attack data represented in the DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, and seen in the NETSCOUT Threat Horizon portal, fuel the ATLAS Intelligence Feed (AIF).    In addition, AIF continuously arms NETSCOUT's security portfolio enabling it to automatically detect, adapt, and block threat activity for enterprises and service providers worldwide.

For online retailers operating within the UK and Ireland, this year’s Black Friday and holiday shopping period are expected to be greatly affected by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. This puts significant pressure on businesses who rely on this time of year to generate or boost their annual profits. Cybercriminals are adding further pressure to e-retailers by continuing to take advantage of the growth in online shopping and digital transactions. Amongst the types of attacks being launched by threat actors are distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which are intended to overwhelm a target’s online services. Most targeted countries Indeed, according to NETSCOUT’s 1H 2022 DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, attackers are further emboldened in their cybercriminal efforts by newly established motivations, vectors, and attack methods. Compared to other European countries observed, the UK and Ireland were both among the most targeted countries by DDoS attacks within the first half of 2022. The UK experienced an average of 743 attacks per day between January and June 2022 The UK experienced an average of 743 attacks per day between January and June 2022. In the same period of time, Ireland faced an average of 284 attacks daily – a 118 per cent increase from the last six months of 2021. Findings also indicate that e-commerce was the third most targeted sector by DDoS attacks within Ireland. On a global scale, e-commerce remains within the top 10 most targeted sectors. Circumventing online defences Fortunately, the e-commerce sector was targeted less at the tail end of the pandemic, compared to 2H 2021. However, DDoS activity still poses significant risks to businesses as cybercriminals have become more sophisticated at circumventing online defences. Richard Hummel, threat intelligence lead for NETSCOUT, comments on how digital retailers throughout the UK and Ireland can defend themselves from DDoS attacks ahead of this Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday shopping period. He said, “The global threat landscape is becoming increasingly more complex, so it is not a matter of if an attack will occur, but when. With the run-up to Christmas being the peak trading period for retailers, they are under immense pressure during this time to prevent costly downtimes, financial losses, and reputational damages.” Robust threat intelligence solutions This will allow online services to go virtually undisturbed in the event of a DDoS attack" Richard Hummel adds, “From a cybersecurity perspective, digital retail businesses have been some of the most targeted by DDoS attacks, so it is vital that they ensure their cybersecurity strategy is robust, and up to date with current threats.” He continues, “To successfully mitigate emerging risks, businesses should consider investing in modern, robust threat intelligence solutions that can help mitigate a variety of cyberthreats, including DDoS attacks. Additionally, businesses should test their online infrastructure regularly to ensure that any changes to critical digital components are incorporated into an established DDoS defence plan. This will allow online services to go virtually undisturbed in the event of a DDoS attack.” Unfamiliar cyberthreat landscape Richard Hummel said, “Lastly, organisations should also consider utilising the expertise of an on-demand DDoS attack specialist before attempting to navigate the unfamiliar cyberthreat landscape.” He adds, “Departments, businesses, and key stakeholders can greatly benefit from an expert, especially during a DDoS attack. Only by properly implementing these strategies can online retailers within the UK and Ireland significantly decrease the impact of DDoS attacks on their digital operations ahead of the holiday season.”