Ncc Regulatory News (NCC)

22 May 2012

NCC Group

Launch of DDoS simulation service

NCC Group plc (LSE: NCC or "the Group"), the international, independent provider of Escrow and Assurance, has today launched DDoS Assured, a new service to lead the fight against the world's most common form of cyber attack.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks flood organisations' servers with more requests than they can handle, preventing their sites from functioning efficiently, or in some cases, functioning at all. They have crashed the sites of organisations including Visa, Mastercard and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency.  An estimated two thirds are used either to make an ideological or political statement, or simply as a form of digital vandalism.

Despite their ease of execution, the fallout from a successful DDoS attack can be significant. The short-term effects are clear, damaging customer service and losing online revenue - but the lingering impact can affect share price, company reputation and customer retention.

To help organisations minimise the risk of these damaging attacks, NCC Group has combined IT security expertise with its load testing and web performance specialisms, creating DDoS Assured, a service that simulates a DDoS attack in a secure, controlled environment.

The simulation assesses how a company's existing IT security systems respond under attack, so that the organisation is then able to improve its security measures based on the results.

Rob Cotton, CEO of NCC Group commented:

"Organisations are now increasingly aware of the potential impact of a DDoS attack on their business and are investing more and more in mitigation services to help minimise the effects. 

However, these services, like all information security measures, should be regularly tested - ideally by an independent third party.  Our new DDoS Assured service provides customers with the peace of mind that the provisions they have in place are up to the task, minimising any downtime and reducing the overall impact of a cyber attack."

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