DDoS attacks more than doubled in 2022

New research from Nexusguard shows that last year DDoS attacks worldwide increased by 115.1 percent over the 2021 level.

Attackers have also continued to alter their threat vectors by targeting the application platforms, online databases, and cloud-based storage systems within Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This has resulted in a significantly greater impact globally as organizations continue to move more of their workloads to the cloud.

But while the numbers have increased the attacks themselves have been getting smaller. A maximum size of 361.9 gigabits per second (Gbps) represents a 48.2 percent decrease over those measured in 2021. Average attack size also shrank by 22.4 percent.

The top three DDoS attack vectors last year were NTP (network time protocol) amplification, memcached, and UDP attacks. UDP-based attacks increased 121.3 percent year-on-year. TCP-based and other attacks also grew significantly. Amplification attacks grew by 414.6 percent YoY, while application attacks saw the biggest growth, increasing by 718.1 percent YoY.

"Although DDoS attack size dropped in 2022, we saw a significant jump in the overall number of attacks, making the need for greater awareness and vigilance more essential today," says Juniman Kasman, chief technology officer of Nexusguard. "Cyber attackers also continue to target critical infrastructure within ASN-level Communications Service Providers (CSPs), especially ISPs, which results in an incredibly far-reaching effect as the organizations relying on those providers are also negatively impacted."

You can find out more on the Nexusguard blog.

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