(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC recently unveiled findings from its DDoS Threat Intelligence Report that dissects trends and attack methodologies adversaries use against service providers, enterprises, and end-users. The information cited in the report is gathered from NETSCOUT’s visibility of data on DDoS attacks from 214 countries and territories, 456 vertical industries, and more than 13,000 Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs).
Driven by tech-savvy and politically motivated hacktivist groups and an increase in DNS water torture attacks, NETSCOUT observed more than seven million DDoS attacks in the second half of 2023, representing a 15 percent increase from the first half.
According to the report, DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) hacktivism transcended geographic borders during the past year, exemplifying a shift in the global security landscape. Groups like NoName057(016) and Anonymous Sudan, as well as lone hackers and small collectives, are increasingly using DDoS to target those ideologically opposed to them, for example:
- Peru experienced a 30 percent increase in attacks tied to protests of former Peruvian President Fujimori’s release from prison on December 6.
- Poland experienced a surge in attacks at the end of 2023 associated with a regime change and statements reaffirming Poland’s support of Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
- Anonymous Sudan attacked X (formerly Twitter) to influence Elon Musk regarding Starlink service in Sudan, and it attacked Telegram for suspending its main channel.
NoName057(016), Anonymous Sudan, and Killnet have taken credit for DDoS attacks in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, and Palestine targeting communications infrastructure, hospitals, and banks. Daily attacks from hacktivists increased more than ten-fold between the first and second halves of 2023. NoName057(016) topped the list of DDoS adversaries in 2023, targeting 780 websites across 35 countries.
DNS (Domain Name System) water torture attacks have been on the rise since the end of 2019. DNS query floods designed to overwhelm authoritative DNS servers experienced a massive 553 percent increase from 2020 to 2023. Rather than targeting one website or server, adversaries go after entire systems, resulting in even more damage.
In addition, based on NETSCOUT’s observations of the DDoS threat landscape, approximately one percent of DDoS attacks are suppressed from originating networks.
“Global adversaries have become more sophisticated in the past year, attacking websites and overloading servers to lockout customers and inflict digital chaos to influence geopolitical issues,” stated Richard Hummel, senior threat intelligence lead, NETSCOUT. “The relentless barrage of DDoS threats drives up costs and creates security fatigue for network operators. They cannot safeguard their digital assets without the proper advanced DDoS protection.”
Multiple decades of experience working with the world’s largest service providers and enterprises give NETSCOUT far-reaching visibility into the global internet to discern the pulse of the digital world. Our capacity to monitor and respond to DDoS attacks is powered by our ATLAS platform, which enables us to analyze an impressive 500 terabits per second (Tbps) of network traffic.
More information from the report can be found here.
