Posted on December 2, 2017 at 7:03 PM

Damaging DDOS Attacks Becoming More Popular Study Finds

A new study revealed that DDoS attacks are increasing in both frequency and severity.

DDoS attacks have been growing in popularity amongst the hacking community in the last year. As botnets become larger and more powerful, DDoS attacks are likely to remain as one of the biggest threats to cybersecurity.

Botnets have evolved to such an extent that they not only infect the targeted device but can also infiltrate any IoT device on the infected device’s network. What’s more, DDoS attacks are becoming easier to launch, especially since DDoS-for-hire services have become available on the darknet market, and new research suggests that DDoS attacks are stronger and more prevalent than ever before.

A recent report published by the security firm, Corero, revealed several alarming statistics related to the most recent DDoS attacks and how it impacts the cyber environment. Corero gathered data from their own clientele which proved to be a comprehensive look at modern DDoS attacks and possible trends in the future.

According to the report, during the third quarter of 2017, Corero’s clientele fell victim to an average of 237 attacks campaigns every month. This figure indicates an increase of a staggering 35% compared the second quarter of the year, where customers only experienced an average of 175 per month. These statistics equate to roughly 8 attacks per Corero client. In addition, the number of attacks in the third quarter doubled since the first quarter.

In addition to the statistics, Corero launched an investigation as to the specifics of each DDoS attack, especially those that targeted the firm’s high-profile clients. Surprisingly, the investigation found that the majority of major attack campaigns did not use large botnets, such as the notorious Mirai. Of the biggest attacks, 96% used botnets smaller than 5GB, and 71% of the attacks lasted for less than 10 minutes.

The report also focused on attack methods and how hackers utilized them. According to the report, the last year saw an increase in multi-vector attacks. According to the report, attacks of this nature aim to launch an attack campaign which targets a system infrastructure as well as application. Multi-vector attacks have the capability of assessing the target’s security measures and then tailoring its attacks methods to bypass the target’s security system.

Another prominent attack method utilizes service flood techniques. Services flood attacks operate, as the name suggests, by flooding a network’s system. In turn, this will cause a temporary system shutdown.

The firm concluded its report by emphasizing the importance of efficient DDoS protections. Once a company employs proper DDoS protection it could prevent DDoS attacks in the future, and minimize damage in the event of an attack bypassing its security system.

The report stated that large firms especially should focus on enhancing system transparency in conjunction with DDoS protection measures as this would allow the company to monitor their system more closely and pick up on any threats in a shorter amount of time.