DDoS attacks last longer and continue to evolve

No one is surprised of a DDoS attack any more. It seems like it’s a regular in the news overview. This is because such attacks keep changing and are therefore increasingly difficult to combat without the right resources, as our annual DDoS data report 2018 – A mature and ever-changing threat shows.

“A trend we see is that DDoS attacks are generally getting smaller and smaller. They are always just big enough to disrupt a server. In addition, DDoS attacks vary more and more, they constantly change composition or type. This makes them difficult to combat,” says Octavia de Weerdt, general manager of NBIP.

This also continues the trend of last year, when it appeared that DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly complex and cunning.

New conclusions this year:

Attacks last longer

DDoS attacks last a little longer. The NBIP has observed a shift to attacks just over fifteen minutes.

Mature threat

In addition, NBIP has seen the number of DDoS attacks rise again in 2018, from 826 to 938 – an increase of 13.6%. The number of types of attacks also rose from 46 to 56. The ongoing change and complexity show that DDoS attacks have become a mature threat.

New leader

In 2017, DNS amplification was still the most common DDoS attack. In 2018, this was LDAP amplification. In 2017, this type of attack was still at number 6 with a share of 7.16%.

“This shows even how much action you take against a DDoS attack or a specific type of attack (DNS amplification), there are always other targets that come to the surface. Cyber criminals continue to try and exploit weaknesses in systems,” says De Weerdt.