DDoS Attacks Rose 151% in First Half of 2020

Attacks grew in number, size, and sophistication as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

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DDoS attacks grew in number, volume, and intensity in the first half of 2020 compared to the first half of 2019, and both very large and very small DDoS attacks showed increased sophistication and intensity in 2020, according to new data from Neustar.

Small DDoS attacks - 5 Gbps or less - grew by more than 200% year over year while very large attacks (100 Gbps and above) showed a 275% growth. And according to the Cambridge University Cybercrime Centre, most of the growth came not from existing criminal groups increasing their activities, but from new players in the DDoS marketplace.

The period also featured the largest volumetric attack Neustar has ever seen, with 1.17 terabits-per-second aimed at the victim. The company reports that amplification attacks also grew in the first half, with one that measured 800 million packets-per-second.

This growth in attack sizes and frequencies came during the rapid Internet traffic growth that accompanied the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, Internet use was up 50 - 70%, and streaming media up more than 12% in the first quarter of 2020 alone, according to Omdia.

For more, read here.

About the Author

Curtis Franklin, Principal Analyst, Omdia

Curtis Franklin Jr. is Principal Analyst at Omdia, focusing on enterprise security management. Previously, he was senior editor of Dark Reading, editor of Light Reading's Security Now, and executive editor, technology, at InformationWeek, where he was also executive producer of InformationWeek's online radio and podcast episodes

Curtis has been writing about technologies and products in computing and networking since the early 1980s. He has been on staff and contributed to technology-industry publications including BYTE, ComputerWorld, CEO, Enterprise Efficiency, ChannelWeb, Network Computing, InfoWorld, PCWorld, Dark Reading, and ITWorld.com on subjects ranging from mobile enterprise computing to enterprise security and wireless networking.

Curtis is the author of thousands of articles, the co-author of five books, and has been a frequent speaker at computer and networking industry conferences across North America and Europe. His most recent books, Cloud Computing: Technologies and Strategies of the Ubiquitous Data Center, and Securing the Cloud: Security Strategies for the Ubiquitous Data Center, with co-author Brian Chee, are published by Taylor and Francis.

When he's not writing, Curtis is a painter, photographer, cook, and multi-instrumentalist musician. He is active in running, amateur radio (KG4GWA), the MakerFX maker space in Orlando, FL, and is a certified Florida Master Naturalist.

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