Akamai Analyzes Q1 Shifts in Internet, Security Landscape

by Sean Michael Kerner

As was the case in the fourth quarter of 2013, China topped the list as the top originating point for attack traffic in the first quarter of 2014.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) has grown to become the second most attacked server port. Although UPnP represented less than a tenth of a percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, it accounted for a 12 percent share of attack traffic in this year’s first quarter.

While distributed denial-of-service attacks continue to be a problem, Akamai’s data shows that its customers experienced fewer DDoS attacks in the first quarter of 2014 than they did in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Akamai monitors the amount of traffic on its network that comes in over IPv6. During the first quarter, Belgium topped the list while the U.S. came in sixth place.

The global average connection speeds in the first quarter reached 3.9M bps for a 24 percent year-over-year gain.

The study ranked Virginia as having the fastest average connection speed in the United States. The state came in at 13.7M bps for a 30 percent year-over-year gain.

When looked at in terms of high broadband speeds, Rhode Island had 55 percent of its connections come in at 10M bps or faster, followed closely by Massachusetts, at 54 percent.