Easy To Use Technology Causes DDoS Attacks to Rise Yet Again

The volume of DDoS attacks encountered by businesses and prganisations increased yet again during the final quarter of 2015, this time by 149 percent year-on-year, according to Akamai’s latest figures.

On average, each Akamai customer reported being hit by 24 DDoS attacks during the three months covered by the report, compared to 17 in 2014, showing how repeated brute attacks are becoming increasingly popular.

Worldwide

Akamai also found that DDoS attacks were getting shorter, averaging 14.95 hours, a near 50 percent decrease compared to the previous year. And in support of recent research, five attacks discovered by Akamai topped 100Gbps, with one even measured at 309Gbs.

Overall, China was the top country sourcing DDoS attacks, with 27.6 percent of attacks, with Turkey entering the table for the first time to take second with 22 percent, with the US in third with 15 percent of attacking IP addresses, while the UK was down to ninth place.

The online gaming sector was most frequently hit by DDoS attacks, while retail was most frequently targeted in web application attacks, being subjected to 59 percent of all assaults. Retail was followed by media and entertainment (10 percent), hotel and travel (10 percent), financial services (7 percent) and high technology (4 percent).

Under threat

Akamai is expecting these numbers to only increase over the coming months, as criminals are inspired by the success of past assaults.

“As we’ve seen in recent quarters, the number of targets attacked will likely grow incrementally, while the number of attacks will grow by leaps and bounds, leading to large increases in attacks per target,” the company said.

“One driver for future threats is the continued proliferation of easy-to-use technology. The same technologies that make the user experience easier for law-abiding people will also make for an easier experience for the online criminal community.

“Collaboration continues to be an imperative for the software and hardware development industry, application and platform service providers, and the security industry in order to break the cycle of mass exploitation, botnet construction and monetisation of cyberattack frameworks.”

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