In September 2021, Bandwidth.com suffered a series of days-long DDoS attacks forcing its service to go offline in the United States.
In September 2021, Hackread shared details of DDoS attacks targeting voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services of VoIP giant Bandwidth.com causing voice and messages service disruption in the United States. Now, the company has published its 3rd quarter profits updates declaring $131 million in sales.
But, the corporation claimed in a press release that the DDoS attacks cost them heavy financial losses, ranging between $9m to $12 million for the current fiscal year. Still, such huge losses reveal the harm DDoS attacks can inflict on companies.
Revenue Loss Causes by Missed Transaction Volume
Though Bandwidth.com has fared well post the cyberattack, the attack’s financial impact has been devastating. On 26 October, the Raleigh-based tech firm informed SEC that based on preliminary use data and currently available information, the DDoS attack caused financial loss of up to $700,000 in the 3rd quarter of 2021. The losses were incurred because of “missed transaction volume and customer credits.”
“The company estimates that the impact of the DDoS attack may reduce CPaaS revenue for the full year of 2021 by an amount ranging from $9 million to $12 million, inclusive of the aforementioned $0.7 million revenue impact in the third quarter,” read the company’s official filing.
Smooth Road Ahead?
CEO David Morken stated that most customers who left Bandwidth after the DDoS attack might return soon. Moreover, Morken confirmed severe service disruptions were caused in September, but he denied paying ransom to resolve the issue.
Morken maintains that the attack had minimal impact on the company’s revenues in the third quarter. Morken revealed that the attack was of “an unprecedented size” and impacted their operations in a “very unique way.”
However, he told investors on Monday that the company has successfully adjusted its defenses and can now “withstand this and other similar threats going forward.”
DDoS attacks on VoIP services
Bandwidth.com is not the only firm to come under a series of DDoS attacks in recent months. In fact, Canadian firm VoIP.ms and two Internet and Telephony Service Providers (ITSP) in the United Kingdom, the South Coast-based VoIP Unlimited and London-based Voipfone also got their services disrupted for several days after suffering a series of massive ransom-based DDoS attacks.
Although in Bandwidth.com’s case, the attackers remained unknown, in the first two cases, attackers were reportedly from the REvil ransomware gang. The good news is that several affiliates of the REvil gang have been arrested while their alleged leader Yevgeniy Polyanin, a Russian national, is wanted by the FBI.
The FBI and our partners also announced the seizure of $6.1 million in funds traceable to alleged ransom payments received by Yevgeniy Polyanin, a Russian national who allegedly launched Sodinokibi/REvil #ransomware attacks against multiple victims. https://t.co/JXumjABvTf pic.twitter.com/kbd38fqr6k
— FBI (@FBI) November 8, 2021
