Microsoft: DDoS Attacks Reach ‘Unprecedented’ Levels in 2021’s Second Half
Recent findings from Microsoft Azure’s DDoS protection team show just how bad the problem is getting.
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That month, the Azure DDoS Protection team mitigated an average of 1,955 attacks per day, according to the report. That marked a 40% increase over the first half of 2021.
The maximum number of recorded attacks in a day totaled 4,296. That was on Aug.10.
In all, the Azure folks say they mitigated almost 360,000 unique attacks against global infrastructure during 2021’s second half. For perspective, that amounts to a 43% increase compared to the first half of last year.
Hackers get especially active during the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Black Friday/Cyber Monday season as people spend more money online. But they weren’t so focused on that time of year in 2021, compared to previous years.
“We saw more attacks in Q3 than in Q4, with the most occurring in August, which may indicate a shift towards attackers acting all year round— no longer is holiday season the proverbial DDoS season!” the Azure DDoS team notes.
We already pointed out that the Azure team stopped the largest known DDoS attack last November. That one originated from about 10,000 sources, from multiple countries, and it lasted about 15 minutes.
But it wasn’t the only significant attack. Microsoft says it also stopped three larger attempts in the second half.
In October, the group put the kibosh on a 2.4 Tbps DDoS attack. Then there was the 3.47 Tbps behemoth in November. Then came December, when the Azure team caught two more attacks — again, in Asia — that both surpassed 2.5 Tbps (one came in at 3.25 Tbps, the other at 2.54 Tbps). That attack lasted just more than 5 minutes.
These shorter, multivector attacks “remain prevalent,” the Azure DDoS Protection team says. However, more attacks are starting to last longer.
“As with the first half of 2021, most attacks were short-lived, although, in the second half of 2021, the proportion of attacks that were 30 minutes or less dropped from 74% to 57%,” the team says. “We saw a rise in attacks that lasted longer than an hour, with the composition more than doubling from 13% to 27%. Multi-vector attacks continue to remain prevalent.”
Regarding the longer attacks, end users tend to experience those as multiple short, repeated bursts, Microsoft says.
Managed security service providers or other security-centric channel partners with gaming customers know the DDoS pain they’ve been feeling. The Azure DDoS Protection group says the gaming industry “continues to be the hardest hit.”
But other sectors are suffering, too — financial services, ISPs, retail, supply chain and media, the report finds.
Which geographies attract the most DDoS attacks? Not surprisingly, the United States still holds an unenviable first place ranking at 54%. India shows up next at 23%. In the first half of 2021, India only dealt with 2% of DDoS attacks, Microsoft says. Hong Kong takes third place at 8%.
“Interestingly, relative to other regions, we saw a decrease in DDoS activity in Europe, dropping from 19% in the first half of 2021 to 6% in the second half,” the team says.
The attacks in Asia mostly stemmed from gaming. China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and India all are seeing more smartphone adoption, and, consequently, more mobile gaming.
The expansion of 5G and IoT technologies, as well as more digital transformation, mean DDoS attacks aren’t going anywhere. In fact, “the increased online global footprint means that the threat of cyberattacks will continue to grow,” report authors say.
“As we have witnessed that DDoS attacks are now rampant even during non-festive periods, it is crucial for businesses to develop a robust DDoS response strategy all year round, and not just during the holiday season.”
Channel partners, you have your mission.
The expansion of 5G and IoT technologies, as well as more digital transformation, mean DDoS attacks aren’t going anywhere. In fact, “the increased online global footprint means that the threat of cyberattacks will continue to grow,” report authors say.
“As we have witnessed that DDoS attacks are now rampant even during non-festive periods, it is crucial for businesses to develop a robust DDoS response strategy all year round, and not just during the holiday season.”
Channel partners, you have your mission.
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.
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