A new report from Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, found that nearly half of the companies surveyed believe they know the identity and motivation of those behind recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against them, with many naming competitors as key culprits.

Criminals seeking to disrupt a company’s operations make up over a quarter (28 per cent) of the suspects but a 12 per cent of companies believe that their competitors are responsible and have paid for DDoS attacks against them.

This suspicion increases even more for those in the business services industry, with over a third surveyed (38 per cent) believing that their competitors were behind a DDoS attack.

Other attackers included criminals seeking to disrupt or distract while another attack took place (18 per cent); criminals seeking to disrupt their services for a ransom (17 per cent); political activists (11 per cent); and governments or state powers (5 per cent).

Ransom is getting to be a popular method of attack according to manufacturers (27 per cent) and those in the telecoms industry (27 per cent).

Evgeny Vigovsky, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, Kaspersky Lab said that DDoS attacks were no longer just about cyber-criminals seeking to halt a company’s operations.

“Businesses are becoming suspicious of each other and there is a real concern that many companies – including small and medium-sized ones – are being affected by the underhand tactics of their competitors, who are commissioning DDoS attacks directly against them, damaging their operations and reputation,” he said.