DDoS Attack Volume Escalates as New Methods Emerge

by Chris Preimesberger

The number of attacks is growing. In the first half of 2013 alone, NSFocus tracked more than 168,000 DDoS attacks.

Launching an attack is easy. Tools are freely available to make it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to launch an attack. Some even have do-it-yourself instructions.

In an attempt to stay one step ahead of defenses, attackers are continually changing their methods, especially when a security provider comes up with a new way to stop attacks.

Hybrid attacks are capable of causing massive amounts of damage for little effort. Hybrid attacks combine two or more types of the three attack methods: network (volumetric flood attacks), server (low and slow attack tools) or application (Secure Sockets Layer, GET or POST attacks). The most popular type of hybrid attacks used by the hackers is the combination of the three protocols, which accounted for 51 percent.

For e-commerce companies and retailers, Website downtime most often can result in the loss of revenue. Companies have reported losing from $10,000 to $100,000 per downtime hour during a DDoS attack.

Website downtime can lead to customer distrust. There’s so much competition out there for most retailers that one misstep online can turn off thousands of potential customers at a time.

Mobile devices without adequate security can be used in botnets to launch attacks. Information on how to do this is also available online.

DDoS is being used more and more as a smokescreen to mask other criminal activity.

Botnets are now available to rent for a nominal fee through cloud services.

While most attacks are short in duration and low volume, DDoS attack capabilities are growing. The largest DDoS attack in history occurred in 2013, peaking at 300G bps.