DDoS Attack Volume and Magnitude Continues to Soar

DDoS attacks have surged in volume and magnitude in the second half of 2024, according to a new report by Gcore.

The cybersecurity firm found that DDoS attacks rose by 56% in H2 2024 compared to H2 2023. There was also a 17% increase in the total number of attacks compared with H1 2024.

The researchers said the findings highlighted a steep long-term growth trend for DDoS.

A number of factors were cited for this surge in DDoS attacks. First, attackers are exploiting the proliferation of poorly secured IoT devices to build large botnets to scale attacks. Additionally, rising geopolitical tensions are resulting in targeted disruptive attacks on critical infrastructure by hacktivist and nation-state groups.

Andrey Slastenov, Head of Security at Gcore, warned: “Not only is the number and intensity of attacks increasing, but attackers are expanding the scope of their attacks to reach an increasingly wide range of sectors.”

There was also a trend towards shorter, but more intense attacks during H2 2024.

The largest DDoS observed in the period peaked at 2Tbps, which is an 18% increase from H1 2024.

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The longest DDoS attack duration in H2 2024 was five hours, which marks a significant decrease from 16 hours in the first half of the year.

The researchers said these “burst attacks” can partly be attributed to improved cybersecurity defenses, such as detection tools. This is because shorter attacks are often more difficult to detect as they may blend in with normal traffic spikes.

A short DDoS attack can also double as a smokescreen to conceal a secondary attack, such as ransomware deployment.

Attackers Target Tech Sector for Widespread Disruption

The report highlighted a significant rise in DDoS attacks targeting the technology sector in H2 2024, increasing from 7% to 19% year-over-year. This is due to threat actors recognizing the widespread disruption potential of attacking technology services that are relied on by vast numbers of organizations.

In July 2024, Microsoft confirmed that a DDoS attack resulted in a 10-hour outage of many of its platforms globally. This incident reportedly impacted multiple organizations, including critical services like banks, courts and utility services.

Additionally, technology platforms’ vast computational power can be exploited by malicious actors to intensify their attacks.

Financial services experienced the biggest increase in DDoS attacks in H2 2024, up by 117% from H1 2024. This sector was targeted by 26% of all DDoS attacks in H2.

The researchers noted that DDoS is often used as an extortion method against financial institutions, given the severe financial and reputational consequences of downtime.

Gaming was the most attacked industry in H2, making up 34% of DDoS attacks. However, it faced 31% fewer attacks compared to H1.

This could be a result of attackers shifting their focus to more high-value sectors, such as the technology and financial services.