DDoS was big in 2016, and it’s gonna get bigger – literally

DDoS attacks
Credit: Profit_Image/Shutterstock

2017 is going to be a pivotal year with the rise in DDoS, with an average of one attack a month reaching at least 1 Tbps in size. In addition, the number of DDoS attacks for the year are expected to reach 10 million, according to the latest technology, media and telecommunications predictions report [PDF] from Deloitte.

The rise in DDoS attacks continued unabated and the size increased by an average of 30% a year from 2013 to 2015, but 2016 saw the first two attacks of 1 Tbps or more, and Deloitte predicts that trend will continue in 2017.

Deloitte predicts an average attack size of 1.25 Gbps to 1.5 Gbps, while the report points out that an unmitigated attack in this size range would be sufficient to take many organizations offline.

DDoS attacks are a growing concern for businesses and consumers alike. These attacks are on the rise along with all forms of cyber attack. According to Kapersky, “43% of businesses experienced data loss in the past year due to a cyber-security incident.”

While DDoS attacks threaten the reputation and the bottom line for businesses, they also threaten consumers. In many cases a DDoS attack is launched as a decoy to hide the real intentions of the hacker – to steal corporate intellectual property and financial data, as well as consumer data. DDoS attacks have been a factor in some of the largest data breaches.

Dave Larson of Infosecurity Magazine reports that “in a large proportion of data breaches reported over the last few years, DDoS attacks have been occurring simultaneously, as a component of a wider strategy; meaning hackers are utilizing this technique in a significant way.”

The anticipated rise in DDoS is due to three concurrent trends, the report said:

  1. The growing installed base of insecure internet of things (IoT) devices that are usually easier to incorporate into botnets than PCs, smartphones and tablets.
  2. The online availability of malware methodologies such as Mirai, which allow relatively unskilled attackers to corral insecure IoT devices and use them to launch attacks.
  3. The availability of ever-higher bandwidth speeds, which means that each compromised device can send a lot more junk data.

More here [whnt] [computerweekly]

This article originally appeared on CyberSecBuzz

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