According to the Scott Hammack, the firm's CEO, hacktivism – which he defines as using computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends – is likely to increase in both the short and long-term.
“Countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal, Israel and most recently the UK, have all experienced demonstrations or social unrest and we expect this activism will soon spill over into the digital realm”, he said, adding the same mentality and discontent that motivates someone to take to the streets is easily transferred to cyber attacks against governments and major corporations.
Hammack went on to say that, over the last eight years, his firm has monitored internet attack traffic from its security operations centre on behalf of its clients. Prolexic, he explains, has tracked a rise in attack traffic over the last few weeks, and as a result, he has increased its own internal threat barometer from 'elevated' to 'high.'
The Prolexic CEO says he believes it is only a matter of time before the number of DDoS attacks against leading businesses and government agencies increases.
“Our intelligence indicates that hacktivist tools are evolving rapidly. As a result, we expect the frequency of attacks will increase and they will be more successful unless organisations upgrade their defences”, he adds.
Against this backdrop, Hammack says he believes hacktivism is entering a new era defined by increasing activity.
“We know that the tools used by hacktivists and cyber attackers are becoming much more effective and the list of targets is increasing”, he says.
“Hacktivism is not something that will quietly fade away. It’s here to stay and that’s why organizations who are victimised by these large and increasingly sophisticated DDoS attacks need a company like Prolexic so they can continue conducting business as usual”, he adds.