Malicious DDoS Attacks Climb 203%

As Russia invaded Ukraine, the cyber focus changed. It shifted from the consequences of the pandemic, including an increase in attack surfaces driven by work from home and the rise of underground crime syndicates, to a ground swell of DDoS activity launched by patriotic hacktivists and new legions of threat actors.

The first six months of 2022 were marked by a significant increase in DDoS activity across the globe. Attacks ranged from cases of hacktivism to terabit attacks in Asia and the United States. The number of malicious DDoS attacks climbed 203% compared to the first six months of 2021. There were 60% more malicious DDoS events during the first six months of 2022 than during the entire year of 2021.

In May 2022, Radware mitigated a volumetric carpet-bombing attack, which represented a total volume of 2.9 PB. The attack lasted 36 hours, peaking at 1.5 Tbps with a sustained attack rate of more than 700 Gbps for more than eight hours. The combination of duration, volume, and average/sustained attack rates makes this one of the most significant DDoS attacks on record.

During the first six months of 2022, Radware observed an increase in malicious transactions targeting online applications, dominated by predictable resource location and injection attacks.

The number of malicious web application transactions grew by 38%, compared to the first six months of 2021, surpassing the total number of malicious transactions recorded in 2020.

Predictable resource location attacks accounted for almost half (48%) of all attacks followed by code injection (17%) and SQL injection (10%). The most attacked industries were retail and wholesale trade (27%) and high tech (26%). Carriers and SaaS providers ranked third and fourth, shouldering 14% and 7% of the attacks respectively.

Major information and communication networks in the Philippines, including CNN, news network ABS-CBN, Rappler, and VERA Files, were the target of DDoS attacks in connection with the country’s 2022 general elections.

No organization in the world is safe from cyber retaliation at this time. Online vigilantes and hacktivists could disrupt wider security efforts driven by nations and authorities. New legions of actors could introduce extreme unpredictability for intelligence services, creating a potential for spillover and wrongful attribution that could eventually lead to an escalation of the cyber conflict.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA