Beware cyber attacks, warns internet security firm

Cyber security specialist firm Akamai Technologies has warned in its Q1-2016 report that Distributed Denial of Service attacks rose by 125 percent y-o-y in the first quarter of this year, up 22.5 percent from the preceding quarter.

Online gambling operators are among the favoured targets of attackers, the figures gathered by the security specialist show, attracting 55 percent of DDoS assaults this year, with general software and technology sites a distant second on 25 percent.

DDoS attacks this year have typically been sustained for around 16.25 hours, which is of shorter than the duration experienced in the same period a year ago.

Multi-vector attacks have become more common and present IT security personnel with bigger problems, Akamai reveals, observing that focused single-vector attacks have dropped 15 percent to 41 percent in the quarter.

Major attacks involving volumes of data in excess of 100 gigabytes per second were up substantially quarter-on-quarter in Q1-2016 at 19…two up on the record of such assaults set in the third quarter of 2014.

Three of these mega-assaults in Q1-2016 targeted online gaming firms and were timed to exploit the Superbowl.

Without identifying the victim, Akamai reveals that in the quarter one website suffered 283 DDoS assaults, and suggests that this exemplifies the latest DDoS trend, where the attackers repeatedly hammer away at high-value site defences believing that they can eventually break through or succeed in extorting a ransom from the owners.

DDoS can also be used to create a diversion and strain security resources to the limit whilst hackers try other routes to achieve the primary goal of stealing data, Akamai reports.

The sources of DDoS attacks in Q1-2016 were mainly China at 27 percent, with the United States next at 17 percent and Turkey a growing threat at 10 percent (Akamai believes this is due to Russian emigres relocating to the country at the intersection of Europe and Asia.)

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