Microsoft: DDoS Attacks Reach ‘Unprecedented’ Levels in 2021’s Second Half

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks ramped up to “unprecedented” levels in the second half of last year. That’s according to Microsoft Azure’s recent report on third- and fourth-quarter DDoS attack trends.

In fact, Azure’s DDoS protection team says it stopped what it believes was the “largest attack ever reported in history. In November, the group discovered a DDoS attack with a throughput of 3.47 Tbps and a packet rate of 340 million packets per second (pps) targeting an Azure customer in Asia.

These efforts show no signs of slowing. They also seem to be more rampant throughout the year now, instead of just during the holidays. Even worse, they’re taking aim at more types of prey. The Azure DDoS protection team say the gaming world experienced the most DDoS attacks between July and December of 2021, followed by VoIP and broadband service providers, among others.

What explains the increase in the number and frequency of these attacks? The Azure experts have an answer.

“The availability of DDoS for-hire services as well as the cheap costs – at only approximately $300 per month – make it extremely easy for anyone to conduct targeted DDoS attacks,” they say.

Click through the slideshow above for more key takeaways from the Azure team’s recent report on DDoS attacks.