Botnets for hire mean anyone can launch a DDoS attack

botnet herder

The latest DDoS Threat Landscape Report from security specialist Incapsula reveals that whilst 71 percent of network layer attacks last under three hours, 20.4 percent last for more than five days.

At an estimated cost of $40,000 per hour according to Incapsula, the total cost of these attacks can run into millions of dollars. The longest attack recorded lasted for 64 days.

The report finds that once a site has been the target of an attack it's likely to be hit again, on average once every 10 days. 20 percent of websites are being attacked more than five times.

In addition it shows a growing trend towards botnets for hire, giving the option to carry out DDoS attacks to anyone willing to pay for the service. This means individuals with minimal DDoS skills can execute attacks using standard scripts. The average fee to hire a botnet for one hour per month is $38 with some as low as $19.99. The services vary in damage potential, with some advertised attack volumes reaching above 200Gbps.

In the second quarter of 2015 nearly 15 percent of all application layer DDoS traffic came from China, followed by Vietnam, the US, Brazil and Thailand. The latter being home to most of the infected routers used in attacks we reported on around a month ago.

"For Q2 2015 we estimate that roughly 40 percent of our clients were exposed to attacks from botnets-for-hire. While these were mitigated, there is no reason why online organizations should face such dangers at all," the report concludes. "Perhaps putting a price tag on the damage caused by such services will bring more public attention to their activity, and to the danger posed by the shady economy behind DDoS attacks".

There's a summary of the findings in infographic form below and the full report is available to download from the Incapsula blog.

Incapsula infographic

Photo Credit: Gunnar Assmy/Shutterstock

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