Distributed-denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks jumped 180% in the third quarter of 2015 compared with the year-ago period. Q3 attacks increased 23% over the second quarter of 2015, according to a survey of B2B and retailer clients of Akamai Technologies Inc., a content delivery network and web security firm.
A DDoS attack occurs when criminals try to knock a site offline by sending an overwhelming volume of traffic to it. It’s distributed because the attack traffic comes from many computers, often thousands, which criminals control through software they surreptitiously load onto consumers’ PCs. Attackers often ask for money to call off the attack.
In its most recent “State of the Internet” report, Akamai uncovered 1,510 DDoS attacks in the third quarter of 2015. The report does not specify how many of these attacks succeeded in knocking a website offline or significantly slowing it down. While criminals may mount DDoS attacks against certain sites, the report stipulates that attackers are not always successful.
Akamai declined to comment on what caused the increase in number of threats, but the Q3 report is the first to include data observed across the Akamai Edge Firewall, the company’s global platform perimeter, as well as its Security Intelligence Response Team, or SIRT, which combines teams responsible for intelligence, research and customer security incident response on the Akamai platforms.
“The new team’s efforts add a greater breadth and depth” to the number of DDoS attacks tracked in the quarterly “State of the Internet” report, the authors write.
Following are the percentages of DDoS attacks in Akamai’s Q3 report as distributed among industry groups:
- Gaming, 50%;
- Software and technology, 25%;
- Financial services, 8%;
- Media and entertainment, 5%;
- Internet and telecom, 3%;
- Education, 3%;
- Government, 1%.
Akamai does not identify the companies in its report, but they include providers of products and services in the following areas: software-as-a-service and cloud-based technologies; Internet-related services such as ISPs and domain name services; banking, payments and insurance; online trading platforms; education; and government, non-profit and non-governmental organizations.
Here are the 10 countries that accounted for the most DDoS attacks in the third quarter of 2015, with the percentage of attacks each accounted for among the top 10, and the comparable percentage for the same period in 2014:
- United Kingdom, was the source of 26% of attack traffic, up from less than 2.42%.
- China, 21%, up from 20.01%.
- United States, 17%, down from 23.95%.
- India, 7%, up from 2.81%.
- Spain, 7%, up from less than 2.42%.
- South Korea, 5%, down from 6.13%.
- Russia, 5%, up from 2.98%.
- Australia, 5%, up from less than 2.42%.
- Taiwan, 4%, up from less than 2.42%.
- Egypt, 3%, up from less than 2.42%.
(The 2015 percentages add up to 100%, but the 2014 percentages do not because different countries were in the top 10 list in Q3 2014.)
“The UK’s climb to first place is mostly an indication of fewer confirmed attack sources from the other countries, as well as the increase in the number of attacks overall,” Akamai says in the report.
Gaming has remained the most targeted sector since Q2 2014, and attacks are often fueled by criminals seeking media attention, peer notoriety or looking to damage reputations or cause industry disruptions, the report reads. Akamai expects the heavy barrage of DDoS attacks against the gaming industry to continue through 2016 as players seek an edge over competitors, and security vulnerabilities in gaming platforms continue to attract attackers.
In the third quarter of 2015, the largest DDoS attack was recorded against a firm in the media and entertainment industry. Akamai says DDoS attacks on media are usually politically motivated, and often launched by powerful adversaries, although no previous examples of politically-motivated threats against media companies were provided in the report.
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