DDoS Attacks Double With Governments Most Targeted

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks continue to grow, with the number of incidents doubling year-on-year (YoY), says new research.

According to StormWall’s DDoS Attacks Report, DDoS attacks globally rose by 102% in the first half of this year, compared with the same period in 2023.

The government sector was the hardest hit, with a 116% YoY increase. StormWall says that attacks on the government sector amounted to 29% of DDoS incidents.

The researchers attribute this, in part, to the large number of countries holding elections this year. Government websites were the most common targets, with DDoS traffic spiking during elections. France, for example, faced an intensive and unprecedented attack during its elections in March.

The next most targeted vertical industries were entertainment and financial services, making up 16% and 14% of DDoS attacks respectively.

StormWall saw significant increases in attacks during the Euro 2024 football (soccer) championships. One sports streaming service faced a 650 Gbp/s attack on June 16, StormWall said.

The researchers reported that botnets are becoming more powerful and believe the average size of a botnet increased from 5000 devices in the first half of 2023, to 20,000 in the first half of 2024.

So-called “carpet bombing attacks,” where attackers target multiple IP addresses to bring down networks, also increased. So did multi-vector attacks, which target multiple layers of the OSI model simultaneously. Attackers could, for example, hit both servers and routers at the same time.

The firm expects attacks to increase further in the second half of 2024, as more countries hold elections.

Read more about defending against DDoS attacks: US Government Releases New DDoS Attack Guidance for Public Sector

Significant DDoS Attacks in 2024

Already, this year has seen a number of significant DDoS attacks, including against Microsoft’s online platforms and cloud systems, and security firm Radware saying that geopolitical issues saw a 265% increase in web DDoS attacks in the first half of 2024, against the same period last year.

“With the increasing number of vulnerable connected devices, many constituent devices of botnets are unknown to their owners,” James Bore, MD of security consultants Bores Group told Infosecurity.

“Add to this an increasingly hostile political environment and the rise in DDoS attacks as a whole, and those against governments in particular, is predictable. Some efforts have been made to improve device security. Banning insecure default passwords for example, but there is still a long way to go.”

“We continue to connect more potential weapons for criminals to our networks, strengthening their botnets and empowering their DDoS attacks. Anti-DDoS measures can provide some protection,” Bore explained.

“But attacks of ever-growing volumes will always be an increasing threat until we begin addressing the problem at source, with security by design applied well to all connected devices and companies holding up their end of the bargain by providing proactive security updates and testing.”