The number of dangerous distributed denial-of-service (DDoS (opens in a new tab)) attacks has seen a significant increase in 2022, according to a new report.
Qrator Labs analysis showed that the number of attacks, as well as their duration, all increased in 2022 compared to previous years - with the minimum figures for the last ten months "significantly higher" than the maximum values observed. in el pasado.
The duration of DDoS attacks has increased tenfold in just one year, gradually showing more of the attackers' capabilities in terms of hardware.
Breaking the numbers apart, Qrator says the number of attacks has increased XNUMX% year-over-year, with threat actors primarily targeting the media (XNUMX%), but also banks (XNUMX%). ) and payment systems (thirteen%).
“Banks and payment systems are the most profitable arenas for attackers, and the media is always in the lead when there are social and political clashes in society,” explained Alexander Lyamin, creator of Qrator Labs.
The first quarter of the year is when most of the attacks are generated, 11%. The second quarter registered twenty-three with three%, while the third, twenty with five%. The fourth quarter saw XNUMX% of each and every DDoS attack for the year.
As for the duration of the attacks, it has multiplied by ten in just twelve months. While in the first quarter of XNUMX the maximum duration of an attack was ten hours, a year later it has increased to more than ten days. In addition to this, the difficulty of these attacks has also increased.
One of the reasons for this significant increase in duration is that threat actors no longer need to intensively optimize the uptime of botnets. The researchers found that the hackers had plenty of resources (that is, enough powerful bots on the botnet) to continue the attack for weeks.