The 2017 Q2 ‘State of the Internet’ report from cloud service provider Akamai was released recently and contained some interesting information about the nature of cyber-attacks and emerging trends in this area. Some of the key points are outlined in this article.
A significant change in the industries targeted most frequently by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks was detected; with the gaming industry receiving a massive share of the attacks, with up to 81% of all attacks were targeted at this industry.
One gaming company received 558 attacks during the quarter alone. This massive increase can be partially attributed to the redesignation of some large companies to the gaming industry from the more generic ‘technologies’ industry.
It was also noted that the source of the greatest number of IP addresses used in volumetric DDoS attacks was Egypt, which accounted for 32% of the global total at 44,198 unique addresses.
In addition to this, a notable change in the size of attacks was identified with more focused, small-scale attacks occurring as opposed to large-easily detectable attacks that have been seen on a regular basis in recent years. This may represent a change in strategy from cyber criminals to avoid detection and the larger media coverage that comes with mass DDoS attacks.
Web application attacks were also examined in the report, and it was determined that the trend for small levels of growth is continuing quarter-by-quarter and year-over-year.
These attacks are often automated and scan the web at will looking for vulnerable sites, rather than the more specific targeting of organisations that are seen in DDoS.
An unfamiliar type of spoofing was also identified know as X-Forwarding-For which modifies headers to make traffic appear as if it was from a different source country, something which could easily be used to cover up state-sponsored cyber-attacks for example. Akamai is planning to do further research into this specific issue to uncover more information.
Overall these types of reports are very useful as they provide insight into the cyber threat landscape globally through the eyes of a worldwide cloud provider. This allows organisations to get some idea of the type of threat they may soon face if they have not already so they can be more prepared for the future.
For access to the full report from Akamai click here. If you require assistance with mitigating the type of attacks mentioned in the report or have further questions about cyber security and cyber threats, please contact Agilient.
The Agilient Team