A graph compares the attack types in 2010 to those in 2011
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — DDoS security provider Prolexic released on Tuesday data it collected from Q4 2011 global attacks against its clients that showed a significant rise in packet-per-second volume, a trend it predicted in its previous attack report released in July 2011.
While Prolexic says an increase in the fourth quarter is not uncommon because of holiday shopping season and the prevalence of attackers targeting e-commerce sites (November was the busiest month for attacks; December 3 – 10 was the week with most attacks), Q4 was marked by an uncharacteristic surge.
According to the report, Prolexic saw a 45 percent rise in the number of DDoS attacks against its clients compared to Q410. It also saw an unprecedented 18-fold increase in packet-per-second mitigated volume compared to the same quarter in 2010. While the number and size of DDoS attacks is on the rise, the attack duration declined from 43 hours in Q410 to 34 hours this quarter.
“Based on fourth quarter statistics, Prolexic predicts that 2012 will feature DDoS attacks that will be shorter in duration, but much more devastating in terms of packet-per-second volume,” Paul Sop, chief technology officer at Prolexic said in a statement. “Think of it this way. In the past, attackers had a rifle. In 2012, they have a machine gun with a laser site.”
Prolexic expects packet-per-second volume and Layer 7 attacks to continue to increase in 2012. It says this trend illustrates the importance of effective traffic monitoring and analysis tools at Layers 3, 4 and especially 7, which is much more difficult to detect.
Prolexic says the average duration for an e-commerce attack was 80 hours, and layer 7 attacks accounted for 40 percent.
The top three source countries for DDoS attacks include Japan, China, and Germany. While Prolexic says it has no firm evidence why Japan is in a leadership position this quarter, it speculates that disasters in the country caused infrastructure changes that led to an increased infection rate of hosts and increased Japanese participation in globally controlled botnets. The US has fallen to number 4 in Q4 despite taking the number one spot the same time last year. Prolexic says this may be because US companies are getting better at locking down infrastructures and are more educated on how to recognize viruses and malware.
While Prolexic says it will continue to invest heavily in increasing network capacity, staffing, research and development, the data illustrates the need for security solutions that can detect layer 7 attacks, as well as help mitigate DDoS attacks on e-commerce websites.
In January, Prolexic launched its Prolexic Portal, an online resource that provides customers more visibility into its cloud-based mitigation services.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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