Research by network services provider Efficient IP has revealed that poorly designed network solutions cost businesses more than $2 million a year.

The 2017 Global DNS Threat Survey Report explored the technical and behavioural causes of the rise in DNS threats and their potential effects to businesses across the world. Major issues highlighted by the study in its third year include a lack of awareness as to the variety of attacks, a failure to adapt security solutions to protect DNS and poor responses to vulnerability notifications. These concerns will not only be subject to regulatory changes, but also create a higher risk of data loss, downtime or compromised public image.

According to the report, carried out among 1,000 respondents across APAC, Europe and North America, 94% of respondents claim DNS security is critical for this business. Yet 76% of organisations have been subjected to a DNS attack in last 12 months and 28% suffered data theft. The Global DNS Threat Survey Report also estimates the annual average costs of the damages caused by DNS attacks to be $2.236 million (for organisations with 3,000+ employees). The leading causes were Malware (35%), DDoS (32%), Cache Poisoning (23%), DNS Tunnelling (22%) or Zero-Day Exploits (19%).

“The results once again highlight that despite the evolving threat landscape and the increase in cyber-attacks, organisations across the globe and their IT departments still don’t fully appreciate the risks from DNS-based attacks,” said David Williamson, CEO at EfficientIP.

“In less than a year, GDPR will come into effect, so organisations really need to start rethinking their security in order to manage today’s threats and save their business from fines of up to £20 million or 4% of global revenue.”

Globally, the results varied widely. 39% of respondents from the UK and US demonstrated more awareness of the top 5 DNS-based attacks than Spain (38%), Australia (36%), Germany (32%) and France (27%), but less than India (50%) and Singapore (47%). In the UK, the attacks organisations are the most aware of include: DNS-based Malware (52%), DDoS (43%), DNS Tunnelling (39%), Cache Poisoning (34%) and Zero-Day Exploits (28%).

The full report and recommendations can be read here