"Hackernomics" drives smaller, shorter and repeated attacks for better efficiency
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- NSFOCUS Information Technology Co., Ltd. (NSFOCUS), a global provider of solutions and services for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) detection and mitigation, today released its DDoS Threat Report 2013, which details attack trends and methodologies over the past year. The report expands on the top 10 findings released in February to include statistical analysis and key observations based on the 244,703 DDoS incidents observed by the NSFOCUS Threat Response and Research (TRR) team or mitigated by the Managed Security Service (MSS) team for NSFOCUS customers and partners around the world. These customers span tier-1 and tier-2 data centers and hosting companies to large enterprises across all industries.
Observations indicate that DDoS attacks are maturing in the era of advanced persistent threats (APT). DDoS attacks have been used as smokescreens to carry out APT attacks or for other malicious purposes. The report also notes the availability of DDoS-as-a-service, which affords anyone with a computer and a credit card the ability to carry out an attack. Finally, DDoS amplification attacks will continue to present a challenge, as the March 2013 attack on anti-spam organization Spamhaus proved, in which traffic reached 300 Gbps. However, the potential for more severe DDoS amplification attacks, such as ones leveraging the network time protocol (NTP), can far exceed the bandwidth levels seen to date.
"DDoS is quickly becoming a common pain point, and businesses need to take this threat seriously if they expect to provide uninterrupted service to their customers," said Frank Ip, vice president of U.S. operations for NSFOCUS. "In 2013, cyber attackers gave the market a lesson in 'hackernomics' and showcased the myriad ways in which they have evolved their attack strategies to deploy sophisticated techniques that will inflict the maximum amount of damage using the fewest resources. The more we learn about attack mentality, the stronger our defenses become."
Findings reveal that "hackernomics" is driving an overarching DDoS trend of smaller, shorter, and repeated attacks. The purpose of most attacks is to disrupt, not to destroy. As such, small application-layer or hybrid attacks, which are cheaper to launch, can cause substantial damage to network resources. Domain name system (DNS) attacks increased as a result of advancements in anti-DDoS technologies that can better counter other attack vectors, and DNS infrastructure continues to remain one of the weakest links.
To obtain your copy of the report, visit here.
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