Mixed DDoS Attack Picture in Q1: Number Up, Size Down
by Sean Michael Kerner
Most Attacks Exceeded 1G bps
In the first quarter, most DDoS attacks had more than 1G bps in attack traffic volume. In particular, Verisign noted that attacks in the 1G-bps to 5G-bps range are growing fast and represented 34 percent of all attacks in the quarter.
There Were More Attacks in Q1
The number of DDoS attacks Verisign mitigated in the first quarter were up 7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014.
DDoS Attack Size Declined
The news isn’t all bad when it comes to DDoS trends in the first quarter. In fact, Verisign reported that the mean peak attack size in the first quarter of 2015 was 3.64G bps, a decline of approximately 50 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014.
Top UDP Reflection Attack Peaked at 54G bps
The largest attack by volume that Verisign saw during the first quarter was a 54G-bps attack that made use of UDP reflection techniques that abuse misconfigurations in Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers and the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP).
Top TCP Attack Only 8G bps
Attacks that make use of only TCP topped out at 8G bps of bandwidth in the first quarter.
IT Services Are a Top Attack Target
About a third (34 percent) of attacks Verisign saw in the first quarter targeted IT services, including cloud and software-as-a-service vendors.
DDoS Motivations Are Variable
The Verisign report also looks at the varying motivation for DDoS over time, which includes hacktivism, cyber-crime, retaliation and mischief.