Akamai recently published its quarterly State of the Internet report, revealing a large increase in DDoS attacks in the third quarter (Q3) of 2016.
According to the content delivery network (CDN) provider’s [link url=”https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/state-of-the-internet/q3-2016-state-of-the-internet-security-executive-summary.pdf” title=”report”], there was a 71 percent increase in total DDoS attacks year-over-year from Q3 2015 to Q3 2016.
Additionally, the report revealed a huge yearly increase of 138 percent in large DDoS attacks (100 gigabits per second (Gbps) and larger).
DDoS: Distributed Denial of Service. A DDoS attack involves multiple compromised systems (i.e. connected devices at various locations), which are utilized in unison to target a single system. The attack attempts to cause a Denial of Service (DoS), or effectively shut down the targeted system due to the influx of traffic. DDoS attacks often utilize malware or viruses that allow for the takeover of multiple remote computers.
Krebs on Security
The two largest DDoS attacks ever recorded both occurred in Q3 — an attack at 623 Gbps and one at 555 Gbps. Each of those record attacks targeted the popular cybersecurity blog [link url=”https://www.krebsonsecurity.com” title=”Krebs on Security”] pubished by Brian Krebs.
Hackers targeted Krebs for his [link url=”https://amuedge.com/half-million-iot-devices-susceptible-mirai-botnet/” title=”coverage of the Mirai Botnet”] and recent large-scale cyber attacks that exploited security vulnerabilities in IoT devices.
#DDoS attacks are up 71% over the last year. Learn more in our Q3 2016 Security Report: https://t.co/HLV1QawEAt #Akamai_SOTI pic.twitter.com/ey76QcTRE6
— Akamai Technologies (@Akamai) November 21, 2016
China is the top source, again
Q3 2016 marked the fourth straight quarter in which China was the top source country for DDoS attacks, [link url=”https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/state-of-the-internet/q3-2016-state-of-the-internet-security-executive-summary.pdf” title=”Akamai noted”]. Approximately 30 percent of DDoS attack traffic traced back to China in the quarter.
Akamai predicted a continued rise of DDoS attacks as 2016 concludes, due in large part to IoT-fueled botnets.
[relink url=”https://amuedge.com/half-million-iot-devices-susceptible-mirai-botnet/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/iot-blame-massive-ddos-attack/”]
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