Last year saw a significant drop in DDOS attack detections. However, according to new research from Kaspersky Lab, the number of such attacks increased significantly in the first quarter of 2019.
Security experts believe that the decrease observed during that period was due to the fact that malicious actors had turned their attention to other types of attacks, such as Cryptomining.
However, according to the statistics, the number of DDoS attacks that were carried out in the first quarter of 2019 and were blocked by Kaspersky Lab increased by 84% compared to the last quarter of 2018.
The cybersecurity company believes that one of the main reasons DDoS attacks saw a decline in their popularity is that several DDoS services were shut down. However, as soon as new sites were created, the number of attacks rose sharply again.
DDoS attacks
According to Kaspersky Lab, DDoS attacks that last more than an hour have doubled and their average duration increased by 487%.
Research results show that hackers have evolved their tactics and are now able to carry out attacks that last longer.
Alexey Kiselev, business development manager of the Kaspersky DDoS Protection team, spoke about the evolution of these attacks:
“The new DDoS services appear to have replaced those that have been discontinued by law‑enforcement services. As organizations implement basic countermeasures, attackers target them with longer‑duration attacks. It is difficult to say whether the number of attacks will continue to increase, but their complexity shows no signs of slowing down. We recommend that businesses prepare effectively in order to withstand advanced DDoS attacks.”
Kaspersky Lab recommends that businesses ensure their websites and resources can handle high traffic and that they use professional solutions to address these types of attacks.
