We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Report: Increase in botnet-assisted attacks, amplification attacks and multi-day DDoS attacks

Report: Increase in botnet-assisted attacks

A
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is an attack in which multiple
compromised computer systems attack a target, such as a server, website, system
or other network resource, causing a denial of service for users of
the targeted resource. Such attack typically floods the targeted servers,
systems or network to sabotage the victim. As the target system slows down or
even crashes, it stops legitimate users from using the system. These DDoS
attacks can be launched by a wide-range of cyber threat actors, ranging from
individual hackers, organised criminals to state actors.

Kaspersky Lab has recently
published
its report looking at botnet-assisted DDoS
attacks for the first quarter of 2018. Experts note an increase in activity by
both old and new botnets, growth in the popularity of amplification DDoS attacks
and the return of long-lasting, multi-day DDoS attacks.

The following are some of the key findings:

Asia-Pacific
is a targeted geography

In
the first quarter of 2018, DDoS botnets attacked online resources in 79
countries, with a vast majority of over 95% of these attacks occurred in the
top 10 countries. The countries experiencing the largest number of attacks were
once again China, the US and South Korea, which all continue to lead in terms
of the number of servers available to attackers. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Japan
also replaced the Netherlands and Vietnam among the top 10 most targeted
countries.

Types and duration of DDoS attacks

The
report found that the share of SYN-DDOS attacks increased slightly from 55.6%
to 57.3%, while the share of ICMP attacks almost doubled from 3.4% to 6.1%.

Distribution of DDoS attacks by type, Q1 2018

It
was also found that after some respite at the end of 2017, sustained attacks
returned, with the longest one lasted for 297 hours, or over 12 days. The share
of all other sustained attacks of 50 hours or more increased by more than six
times to 0.63%.

At
the other end of the spectrum, the share of the shortest attacks of 9 hours or
less also grew, accounting for over 91% of all attacks in the first quarter of
2018.

Meanwhile,
the number of attacks lasting between 10 hours and three days in the latest
quarter almost halved from 14.9% to 7.8%.

Distribution of DDoS attacks by duration (hours), Q4 2017 and Q1 2018

According
to the report, in first quarter of this year saw a significant increase in both
the total number and duration of DDoS attacks against the last quarter of 2017.
The hike is largely due to the new Linux-based botnets Darkai (a Mirai clone)
and AESDDoS.

The
number of now-familiar Xor attacks also rose. Neither did Windows-based botnets
remain idle, making some headway against Linux in the total number of attacks. The
share of Linux botnets last quarter fell slightly compared to the end of 2017,
down to 66% from 71%, while the share of Windows-based botnets climbed from 29%
to 34%. The old Yoyo botnet was particularly lively, almost five times as
active.

‍Correlation between Windows- and Linux-based botnet attacks, Q1 2018

What organisations can do to boost their
DDoS defence

"Exploiting vulnerabilities is a favourite
tool for cybercriminals whose business is the creation of DDoS botnets.
However, as the first few months of the year have shown, it’s not only the
victims of DDoS attacks that are affected, but also those companies with
infrastructure that includes vulnerable objects. The events of the first
quarter reaffirm a simple truth: the platform that any company uses to
implement multi-layered online security must include regular patching of
vulnerabilities and permanent protection against DDoS attacks,” comments
Mr Alexey Kiselev, Project Manager on the Kaspersky DDoS Protection team.

As botnet attacks evolve, cybersecurity defence
must be updated too. Kaspersky
DDoS Protection
 combines Kaspersky Lab’s extensive expertise in combating
cyberthreats and the company’s unique in-house developments. The solution
protects against all types of DDoS attacks regardless of their complexity,
strength or duration. To reduce the risk of vulnerabilities being used by
cybercriminals for DDoS attacks, Kaspersky
Endpoint Security for Business
 provides a vulnerability and
patch management component. It allows businesses to automatically eliminate
vulnerabilities in infrastructure software, proactively patch them, and
download software updates.

Is your organisation getting the protection it deserves? Download white paper here to find out more.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend