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October 5, 2021

Report: There were a record 5.4 million DDoS attacks in the first half of 2021

Photo | Pixabay
By Zachary Comeau

Ransomware and supply chain attacks are garnering major global headlines due to the massive impacts those cyberattacks have on organizations, economies and national security, but cybersecurity firm Netscout is also warning of a steep increase in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

According to the company’s seventh bi-annual Threat Intelligence Report, there were 5.4 million such attacks in the first half of 2021, which represents an 11% increase from the first half of 2020. Netscout is now predicting a record-setting year for DDoS attacks, expecting them to surpass 11 million globally.

These attacks are also growing in duration, size and speed, the company reported.

These attacks are designed to take an internet asset like a website network server offline by flooding it with tons of traffic until it stops working properly.

The report suggests that ransomware actors are using DDoS attacks as another tool to gain leverage over a victim. If the ransomware victim is able to recover their data from secure backups and avoid paying a ransom – even after threats to publicly release exfiltrated data from the victim – the hacker conducts a DDoS attack to ramp up the pressure and force the victim to pay a ransom.

“First, it emphasizes the seriousness of the adversary,” the company says in the report. “And second, maintaining availability adds yet another stressor to a security team already dealing with the first two events.”

The report suggests that “vital components of the connectivity supply chain” make ideal targets for DDoS extortion attacks, listing DNS servers for internet service providers, VPNs and internet exchanges as the top targets.

Wired and wireless telecommunications carriers, data and hosting services make up the top vertical markets for DDoS attacks, according to the report.

“Even if the attack does not take the component fully offline, these services represent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of consumers, and are the gateways to everything we do online,” the report said. “Take one down, and you impact a huge array of people, organizations, and service providers.”

 

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