The total number of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks increased by nearly 24%, while the total number of smart attacks (advanced DDoS attacks that are often targeted) increased by 31% when compared to the same period last year.
According to Kaspersky, some of the most notable targets were tools to fight the pandemic, government organisations, game developers, and well-known cybersecurity publications.
When compared with Q3 2020, the total number of DDoS attacks increased by nearly 24%, and the total number of “smart” attacks increased by 31%. Both types of attacks also increased when compared to Q2 2021, with the largest percentage of resources attacked (40.8%) located in the US, followed by Hong Kong and mainland China. In fact, in August, Kaspersky noted a record number of DDoS attacks in a single day: 8,825.
Some of the most notable, large-scale DDoS attacks over the past quarter involved a new, powerful botnet called Mēris, which is capable of sending out a massive number of requests per second. This botnet was seen in attacks against two of the most well-known cybersecurity publications – Krebs on Security and InfoSecurity Magazine.
Other notable DDoS trends in Q3 included a series of politically-motivated attacks in Europe and Asia, as well as attacks against game developers. In addition, attackers targeted resources to combat the pandemic across several countries, and there was a series of ransomware attacks against telecommunications providers in Canada, the USA, and the UK. The attackers presented themselves as members of the infamous ransomware group REvil and shut down the companies’ servers to pressure them into paying the ransom.