New research by Positive Technologies shows that distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack are getting increasingly powerful. Last year, two DDoS attacks broke all previous records, peaking at 1.35 and 1.7 terabits per second, respectively. In the last quarter of 2018, DDoS attacks mostly hit government agencies and IT firms.
The researchers also noted a general rise in targeted attacks and an increase in attacks where data theft is the underlying motivation. The motivational breakdown of attacks was as follows: 42% – access to information; 41% – financial profit; 15% – hacktivism; 2% – cyberwar. The report notes that motivations frequently overlap. For instance, while obtaining confidential data is sometimes an end in itself, cybercriminals often steal data in order to monetize it by selling it or by using it to extort victims or to commit fraud.
Read more: DDoS attacks on the rise: Largest attack ever hit 1.7 Tb/second
