The size and volume of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks has increased four-fold over the past year, as hackers and cyber criminals seize control of more devices and deploy more sophisticated methods, according to research from Akamai.
The cloud services provider says there was a 339 percent year-on-year increase in average attack bandwidth as the total number of DDoS attacks rose by 22 percent.
High bandwidth and high volume attacks were made possible using multi-vector attack methods, with more than half of all attacks using such tactics, a 9 percent increase from last year. Akamai says this can be explained by better availability of toolkits and an expanded ‘DDoS for hire’ criminal industry.
“DDoS attack size and volume have gone through the roof this year,” says John Summers, vice president of Akamai’s security business unit. “. “In the third quarter alone, Akamai mitigated 17 attacks greater than 100 gigabits-per-second, with the largest at 321Gbps.
“Interestingly, we witnessed none of that size in the same quarter a year ago and only six last quarter. These mega-attacks each used multiple DDoS vectors to deliver large bandwidth-consuming packets at an extremely high rate of speed.”
Earlier this year, a 400Gbps DDoS attack targeted an unnamed CloudFlare customer in what was believed to be the largest ever assault in Europe, while Sony, Blizzard and RBS have been among firms targeted in the past year.
Akamai also noted the prominence of phishing attacks, which are still favoured by hacktivists looking to gain login credentials and confidential information. During the third quarter, CNN and the Associated Press were among those to suffer, with the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) highlighted as a particular advocate of this type of attack.
Typically, the SEA sends emails to members of targeted organisation with a fake log-in page in the hope of tricking the user into surrendering their details. A similar tactic was employed in a recent attack on iCloud users in China, with the Chinese government suspected of orchestrating the scam, although Beijing has denied any involvement.
Are you a security pro? Try our quiz!
Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector
Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…
Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…
Judge Kaplan praises former FTX CTO Gary Wang for his co-operation against Sam Bankman-Fried during…
Explore the future of work with the Silicon In Focus Podcast. Discover how AI is…
Executive hits out at the DoJ's “staggering proposal” to force Google to sell off its…
View Comments
If the Blackhats can break into places like EBay, CIA, etc., etc., regular as clockwork, our only hope is to isolate ourselves as far as possible.
Here are my amateur best ideas so far:
1. Get away from anything Microsoft.
ESpecially the Browser.
Use Firefox or Chrome.
2. NEVER ever open cute pictures from ANYWHERE.
ESpecially in emails or honey-traps like FAcebook and Twitter.
3. Change your operating System to Linux and install VBox.
Do this and you can even still run Windows INSIDE the vault of VBox. (If you MUST)
4. Get a second cheap PC just for connecting to the Internet as in (3).
5. NEVER click on an email from your bank or any Authority - even your Mum, unless you check the actual url VERY carefully.
6. I have in the past been caught by every one of these faults.
DO NOT BELIEVE anything out there - it is a jungle.
7. Don't worry about your password complexity. They can crack anything today, but usually simply steal it from somewhere supposedly safe.
SO: Invent a simple phrase with 3 numbers in the middle: I hate 101 cats
Then change it every Friday or Monday e.g. I hate 112 dogs.
Finally, Get rid of your Credit Cards!! Get a DEBIT Card and only top it up as required on-line and from a hidden Account.
Good Luck.....