Imperva, a Thales company and a leader in cybersecurity, has issued a stark warning to organizations about the escalating threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. According to the 2024 Imperva DDoS Threat Landscape Report, there has been a significant increase in both the frequency and severity of these attacks, necessitating urgent and robust security measures.

The report reveals several key findings:

1. Mitigated DDoS Attacks Increased 111%: In the first half of 2024, Imperva mitigated 111% more DDoS attacks compared to the same period in 2023.
2. Largest Application Layer DDoS Attack: In February 2024, an application layer DDoS attack peaked at an unprecedented 4.7 million Requests Per Second (RPS).
3. Growing DNS Amplification Attacks: The average DNS amplification attack bandwidth surged by 483% in the second half of 2023.

DDoS attacks, known for their ability to overwhelm networks, servers, and applications with excessive traffic, remain a preferred tactic for cybercriminals due to their disruptive potential. Despite being a longstanding threat, both the volume and sophistication of these attacks are on the rise, fueled in part by the accessibility of DDoS tools. Automation has lowered the technical barriers, enabling even those with limited expertise to launch significant attacks.

The report highlights that Australia (5.2%), Singapore (2.9%), and Japan (2.5%) are among the top targets for application layer DDoS attacks in the region. By industry, the financial sector continues to be the primary target, facing the most potent DDoS assaults in terms of RPS. Attacks on financial services reached a combined RPS of 118 million in H1 2024, with the Business and IT sectors following closely.

Comparing the first half of 2024 to the same period last year, there has been a notable increase in DDoS attacks across multiple industries. The Telecom and ISP sector experienced the highest year-over-year growth, with a 548% increase in application layer DDoS attacks. The Healthcare sector saw a 236% rise, and the Gaming industry witnessed a 208% increase in attacks.

“We expect the number and intensity of DDoS attacks to continue climbing, largely due to AI lowering the attack barrier,” said Daniel Toh, Chief Solutions Architect, APJ at Imperva. “AI can automate the creation and deployment of sophisticated DDoS attacks, enabling even novice hackers to launch powerful assaults. In the foreseeable future, we anticipate more DDoS attacks powered by AI-enhanced botnets, including potential new variants of Mirai.”

Toh emphasized the need for organizations to implement active ‘always-on’ DDoS protection or, at a minimum, an ‘on-demand’ DDoS protection. Ideally, these protections should be supported by an elastic cloud-based service capable of handling large volumetric attacks. The DDoS protection provider should have a global presence and the capacity to mitigate high-volume and sophisticated attacks, secure applications and data, and protect beyond just DDoS and the network edge.

For best practices, organizations should enhance cybersecurity awareness among employees and users through education and maintain open communication between security and networking teams. Additionally, application code must be written securely from the outset.