Compared to the first quarter of 2021, the number of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks for the January-March 2022 period increased 4.5 times with a sizable number of attacks probably the result of hacktivist activity.
According to Kaspersky's report, the attack also demonstrated an unprecedented duration for DDoS sessions, especially those aimed at state and bank resources.
DDoS attacks are designed to disrupt the networks that businesses and organizations use and prevent them from functioning properly. So it is more dangerous if the compromised system is in the government or financial sector, because if these services are not available, it will have an impact on the wider population.
The first quarter of 2022 saw an increase in surprise attacks in late February as a result of the crisis in Ukraine.
Compared to telemetry in Q4 (Q4) 2021, which has been considered the highest number of DDoS attacks of all time detected by Kaspersky, Q1 2022 saw the total number of DDoS increase 46%, growing 4.5 times over the same period in 2021.
The number of sophisticated and targeted attacks also showed a significant growth of 81% over the previous record from Q4 2021. The attacks were not only carried out on a large scale but also innovative.
Examples include sites that mimic the popular puzzle game 2048 to gamify DDoS attacks on Russian websites, and calls for the formation of an IT volunteer troop to facilitate cyberattacks.
Kaspersky's further investigation revealed the average DDoS session lasted 80 times longer than in Q1 2021. The longest attack was detected on March 29 with a duration of 177 hours.
"In the first quarter of 2022 we saw an all-time high number of DDoS attacks. The upward trend is largely due to the geopolitical situation. What is unusual is the long duration of DDoS attacks, and this is usually done for real-time gain," said Alexander Gutnikov, security expert at Kaspersky.
To stay protected from DDoS attacks, Kaspersky experts recommend the following precautions:
· Maintain web resource operations by assigning specialists who understand how to respond to DDoS attacks.
· Validate third party agreements and contact information, including those made with internet service providers. This helps teams quickly access agreements in the event of an attack.
· Implement professional solutions to protect your organization from DDoS attacks. For example, Kaspersky DDoS Protection.
· Knowing and understanding your traffic. It is a good choice to use network monitoring tools and applications to identify traffic trends and trends. By understanding your company's typical traffic patterns and characteristics, you can establish a baseline to more easily identify unusual activity that is a symptom of a DDoS attack.
· Designing a Plan B defensive posture that is ready to be implemented. Always ready and alert to recover business critical services quickly in the face of DDoS attacks.