DDoS attacks dominate threats to critical infrastructure
New research from NETSCOUT looking at the DDoS attack landscape shows that this method has evolved into a precision-guided weapon of geopolitical influence capable of destabilizing critical infrastructure.
Based on monitoring of more than eight million DDoS attacks globally in the first half of 2025, the study shows hacktivist groups like NoName057(16) have orchestrated hundreds of coordinated strikes each month, targeting the communications, transportation, energy, and defence sectors.
Threat actors move to smaller more persistent attacks
Threat actors are favoring smaller, persistent attacks under 100,000 requests per second according to a new report. This shift signals a growing dependence on automated, generative AI-enhanced attack tools, reflecting the democratization of DDoS capabilities among loosely coordinated threat actors and new actors entering the scene.
The report from Radware also shows web DDoS attacks rose 39 percent over the second half of 2024. The second quarter set a record with a 54 percent quarter-on-quarter spike.
Politically motivated DDoS attacks target critical infrastructure
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become a dominant means of waging cyberwarfare linked to socio-political events such as elections, civil protests and policy disputes, according to the latest DDoS Threat Intelligence Report from NetScout.
Throughout the year, DDoS attacks have been intricately tied to social and political events, including Israel experiencing a 2,844 percent surge linked to hostage rescues and political conflicts, Georgia enduring a 1,489 percent increase during the lead-up to the passage of the 'Russia Bill', and Mexico having a 218 percent increase during national elections.
Web DDoS attacks up over 500 percent
The total number of web DDoS attacks surged 550 percent last year compared to 2023, according to the latest report from Radware.
The average duration of network DDoS attacks increased 37 percent over 2023, with North America facing 66 percent of web application and API attacks.
Operational tech under attack, deepfake phishing and learning to use passkeys -- cybersecurity predictions for 2025
With a constant power struggle between attackers and defenders cybersecurity is a fast-moving area. That makes it notoriously hard to predict what might happen, but that doesn't stop us trying. Here are what some industry experts think the cybersecurity world has in store for 2025.
Sasha Gohman, VP, research at Cymulate, thinks ransomware will become obsolete. "Ransomware may become obsolete due to the fact that decrypting your important files may become a feasible task with quantum computing. On the other hand, ransomware operators may then choose to encrypt your important files with quantum-resilient encryption."
Pro-Russian hacktivists target Europe
A new report shows that 96 percent of attacks conducted by a leading pro-Russian hacktivist group targeted Europe this year, with attackers focusing on influencing public perception and trust over direct technical disruptions.
Based on research and data from more than 135,000 security events in 160 countries, the Security Navigator report from Orange Cyberdefense also reveals that hacktivists were responsible for 23 percent of cyberattacks that directly targeted OT and 46 percent of these attacks resulted in a 'manipulation of control.'
The Internet Archive suffers massive data breach affecting tens of millions of users
The Wayback Machine has suffered a colossal security incident after the Internet Archive fell victim to a huge data breach.
Data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) says that a 6.4GB SQL file containing registered users’ authentication information has been shared. In all, 31 million email addresses have been found to be part of the database, and tests have shown the the data is genuine.
Hacktivist activity drives a rise in DDoS attacks
The first half of this year has seen a 43 percent increase in the number of application-layer attacks and a 30 percent increase in volumetric attacks, especially in Europe and the Middle East, according to the latest threat report from NETSCOUT.
The attacks involve a range of threat actors, including hacktivists, targeting critical infrastructure in the banking and financial services, government and utilities sectors.
DDoS attack activity soars in first half of 2024
In the first half of 2024, web DDoS attacks surged globally 265 percent compared to the second half of 2023, according to the latest threat analysis report from Radware.
Organizations in EMEA were the primary target of web DDoS attacks between January and June of 2024, being subject to more than 90 percent of the attacks.
2023 saw a global rise in ransomware and hacktivism
A new report from threat intelligence company Intel 471 shows a global rise in ransomware and hacktivism.
The report notes 4,429 ransomware attacks in 2023, almost double the 2,344 observed in 2022, with the most prominent variants being LockBit 3.0, ALPHV, CLOP, Play and 8BASE. North America saw a notable 125.3 percent increase in ransomware, followed by Europe with 67.7 percent, Asia with 46.8 percent, South America with 40.9 percent.
Politically motivated DDoS attacks on the rise
This year has already seen several warnings of attacks targeting elections that are happening around the world.
A new report from NETSCOUT has identified a rise in politically motivated DDoS attacks. Peru experienced a 30 percent increase in attacks tied to protests about former Peruvian President Fujimori’s release from prison in December.
Number of cyber extortion victims up by 46 percent
The cyber extortion threat landscape continues to evolve quickly and the past 12 months have seen the number of victims globally increasing by 46 percent, marking the highest numbers ever recorded.
A new report from Orange Cyberdefense shows large enterprises were the victim in the majority of attacks (40 percent), with those employing more than 10,000 people seeing a steady increase.
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