Adversaries Continue Cyberattack Onslaught with Greater Precision and Innovative Attack Methods according to 1H2022 NETSCOUT DDoS Threat Intelligence Report

TCP-based, DNS water-torture, and carpet-bombing assaults dominate the DDoS risk panorama

Ireland, India, Taiwan, and Finland battered by DDoS assaults ensuing from the Russia/Ukraine struggle

NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. (NASDAQ: NTCT) in the present day introduced findings from its 1H2022 DDoS Threat Intelligence Report. The findings show how refined cybercriminals have develop into at bypassing defenses with new DDoS assault vectors and profitable methodologies.

“By constantly innovating and adapting, attackers are designing new, more effective DDoS attack vectors or doubling down on existing effective methodologies,” stated Richard Hummel, risk intelligence lead, NETSCOUT. “In the first half of 2022, attackers conducted more pre-attack reconnaissance, exercised a new attack vector called TP240 PhoneHome, created a tsunami of TCP flooding attacks, and rapidly expanded high-powered botnets to plague network-connected resources. In addition, bad actors have openly embraced online aggression with high-profile DDoS attack campaigns related to geopolitical unrest, which have had global implications.”

Deployed in a lot of the world’s ISPs, giant knowledge facilities, and authorities and enterprise networks, NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS assault safety options ship anonymized DDoS assault statistics to NETSCOUT’s Active Level Threat Analysis System (ATLAS™). This knowledge, which incorporates visibility into greater than 190 nations, 550 industries, and 50,000 autonomous system numbers (ASNs), is then analyzed and curated by NETSCOUT’s ATLAS Security Engineering and Response Team (ASERT) to present distinctive insights within the report. No different vendor sees and is aware of extra about DDoS assault exercise and greatest practices in safety than NETSCOUT.

Key findings from the 1H2022 NETSCOUT DDoS Threat Intelligence Report embrace:

• There have been 6,019,888 world DDoS assaults in 1^st half of 2022.
• TCP-based flood assaults (SYN, ACK, RST) stay probably the most used assault vector, with roughly 46% of all assaults persevering with a pattern that began in early 2021.
• DNS water-torture assaults accelerated into 2022 with a 46% enhance primarily utilizing UDP question floods, whereas carpet-bombing assaults skilled an enormous comeback towards the tip of the second quarter; total, DNS amplification assaults decreased by 31% from 2H2021 to 1H2022.
• The new TP240 PhoneHome reflection/amplifications DDoS vector was found in early 2022 with a record-breaking amplification ratio of 4,293,967,296:1; swift actions eradicated the abusable nature of this service.
• Malware botnet proliferation grew at an alarming charge, with 21,226 nodes tracked within the first quarter to 488,381 nodes within the second, leading to extra direct-path, application-layer assaults.

Geopolitical Unrest Spawns Increased DDoS Attacks

As Russian floor troops entered Ukraine in late February, there was a major uptick in DDoS assaults focusing on governmental departments, on-line media organizations, monetary companies, internet hosting suppliers, and cryptocurrency-related companies, as beforehand documented. However, the ripple impact ensuing from the struggle had a dramatic influence on DDoS assaults in different nations too, together with:

• Ireland skilled a surge in assaults after offering service to Ukrainian organizations.
• India skilled a measurable enhance in DDoS assaults following its abstention from the UN Security Council and General Assembly votes condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
• On the identical day, Taiwan endured its single-highest variety of DDoS assaults after making public statements supporting Ukraine, as with Belize.
• Finland skilled a 258% enhance in DDoS assaults year-over-year, coinciding with its announcement to apply for NATO membership.
• Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and Norway have been focused by DDoS assaults linked to Killnet; a gaggle of on-line attackers aligned with Russia.
• While the frequency and severity of DDoS assaults in North America remained comparatively constant, satellite tv for pc telecommunications suppliers skilled a rise in high-impact DDoS assaults, particularly after offering assist for Ukraine’s communications infrastructure.
• Russia skilled an almost 3X enhance in day by day DDoS assaults because the battle with Ukraine started and continued via the tip of the reporting interval.

Similarly, as tensions between Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong escalated in 1H2022, DDoS assaults in opposition to Taiwan often occurred in live performance with associated public occasions.

NETSCOUT’s DDoS Threat Intelligence Report covers the most recent traits and actions within the DDoS risk panorama. It covers knowledge captured from NETSCOUT’s ATLAS and knowledgeable insights from ASERT.

The visibility and insights compiled from the worldwide DDOS assault knowledge, represented within the DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, and seen within the Omnis Threat Horizon portal, gas the ATLAS Intelligence Feed (AIF). In addition, AIF constantly arms NETSCOUT’s Omnis and Arbor safety portfolio enabling them to routinely detect and block risk exercise for enterprises and service suppliers worldwide.

Visit our interactive web site for extra data on NETSCOUT’s semi-annual DDoS Threat Intelligence Report. You can even discover us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for risk updates and the most recent traits and insights.

About NETSCOUT

NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. (NASDAQ: NTCT) protects the linked world from cyberattacks and efficiency disruptions via superior community detection and response and pervasive community visibility. Powered by our pioneering deep packet inspection at scale, we serve the world’s largest enterprises, service suppliers, and public sector organizations. Learn extra at www.netscout.com or comply with @NETSCOUT on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

©2022 NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. All rights reserved. NETSCOUT, the NETSCOUT brand, Guardians of the Connected World, Adaptive Service Intelligence, Arbor, ATLAS, Cyber Threat Horizon, InfiniStream, nGenius, nGeniusONE, and Omnis are registered emblems or emblems of NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC., and/or its subsidiaries and/or associates within the USA and/or different nations. Third-party emblems talked about are the property of their respective house owners.

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