DDoS Attacks Up Sharply in Third Quarter of 2019

DDoS attacks large and small are rapidly growing in frequency, with 241% more attacks launched in the third quarter of 2019 than were seen in the third quarter of 2018. The growth was especially large in smaller attacks — those under 5 gigabits per second — as these lower-level attacks were 303% higher in 2019 than in the same period in 2018.

The new data from Neustar also shows smaller attacks include many at the application layer. These made up 81% of the attacks in Q3 2019, up from 75% of all attacks in Q2 2019, and 69% of the attacks in Q3 2018.

Larger attacks haven't disappeared, either: they grew nearly 200% year over year. Even so, the average attack size is down from 10.5 Gbps in 2018 to 7.6 Gbps in 2019. Smaller attacks can escape detection for days while degrading Web application performance and damaging customer experience and economic results, according to Neustar's report, and are especially damaging to purely on-line companies like gaming and SaaS offerings.

And most organizations (59%) surveyed for the report say their organizations have suffered DDoS attacks.

For more, read here and here.

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