14%
64%
10%
11%
South Korea
As the COVID-19 pandemic triered a massive shift in internet usage,
cybercriminals quickly pounced, launching more than 10 million DDoS attacks
aimed at crippling the very online services essential to remote work and online life.
Vital pandemic industries such as ecommerce, streaming services, online learning,
and healthcare all experienced increased attention from malicious actors, including
those behind the Lazarus Bear Armada campaign of DDoS extortion attacks that hit
thousands of companies worldwide. As the COVID-19 pandemic extends into 2021,
we can logically expect to see threat actors targeting vulnerabilities exposed by the
global crisis as well as discovering and using new attack vectors that poke at the
weak spots of our new normal.
Impact Analysis
This was a record-breaking year for DDoS attacks—and that has to have an impact on global infrastructure,
since DDoS attackers don't pay for transit costs. Instead, that cost is generally passed down to everyone
who uses the internet. So we continued to dig into the details of how much traffic on the global internet is
due solely to DDoS attacks by calculating the DDoS Attack Coefficient (DAC). This measurement illustrates
the continual presence of DDoS traffic across all regions. In essence, it shows the "DDoS tax" that we
all end up paying.
DDoS Statistics
Attack frequency
Max throughput
Average duration
Size
Speed
Duration
Attack types
177 GBPS
39.8 MPPS
8 MIN
TCP SYN, UDP, TCP RST
Max number of
vectors seen in
a single attack
20
TOP 5 VECTOR # OF ATTACKS
TCP ACK
53,015
TCP SYN
50,989
TCP RST
29,730
DNS Amplification
23,777
ICMP
22,112
Key Metrics from the 2H 2020 NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report
Max attack size
July
August
December
47%
378.6 Gbps
July
83.7 Mpps
199.9 Gbps
September
50%
300.5 Gbps
September
22%
34.2 Mpps
August
48%
43.8 Mpps
October
128%
77.9 Mpps
November
10%
70.2 Mpps
December
139%
167.7 Mpps
October
40%
420.5 Gbps
381.4 Gbps
November
25%
21%
510.8 Gbps
Gbps
Mpps
100
200
300
500
400
600
0
40
80
60
100
July
August
December
47%
378.6 Gbps
July
83.7 Mpps
199.9 Gbps
September
50%
300.5 Gbps
September
22%
34.2 Mpps
August
48%
43.8 Mpps
October
128%
77.9 Mpps
November
10%
70.2 Mpps
December
139%
167.7 Mpps
October
40%
420.5 Gbps
381.4 Gbps
November
25%
21%
510.8 Gbps
Gbps
Mpps
100
200
300
500
400
600
0
40
80
60
100
B A N D W I D T H I M PA C T P E R C E N TA G E C H A N G E
T H R O U G H P U T I M PA C T P E R C E N TA G E C H A N G E
Largest Attack
Vector Attacks