KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Barely a month ago, the Malaysian defence ministry launched the Cyber Defence Operations Centre (CDOC) to thwart the possibility of cyber-attacks, and conscious of the growing threat of cybersecurity. This move is in line with Akamai’s latest findings from Q4 2016 which saw a 140 percent Year over Year increase in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks greater than 100Gbps.

The fourth quarter of 2016 saw the ‘Mirai botnet’ continue as one of the largest threats, but it is not the only Internet of Things (IoT) based botnet. At least two other major IoT based botnets were also in use. These were among Akamai Technologies’ latest findings that describes an overall daily attack trend and how four retail sub-verticals were each hit by different types of attacks timed during the holiday season.

Akamai Technologies’ Q4 2016 State of the Internet – Security Report released today, has a range of key trends that are making their mark on global technology and business practices and infrastructure – including the largest DDoS attack this quarter, measured at 517 Gbps that came from a non-IoT botnet.

Two key pieces of particular interest however were:

- Malaysian ASN 4788 produced more reflection DDoS traffic in Q4 than the next two ASNs from China combined.
- Old malware still works. A customizable toolkit like spikes makes it easy for a malicious actor to build a new botnet. This attack demonstrates that an attacker can modify old malware, build a botnet, and generate one of the largest DDoS attacks to date.

Key Findings

In the third quarter, Akamai mitigated an attack that was measured at 623 Gbps and was powered by IoT devices controlled by Mirai. Although attacks by Mirai botnet, and related botnets of IoT devices are big news, this quarter the largest attack of 517 Gbps came from a botnet with a different source – a type of malware more commonly associated with x86 Linux-based malware, such as XOR and BILLGATES.

DDoS attacks greater than 300 Gbps have become more common. Seven DDoS attacks greater than 300+ Gbps occurred in 2016, including three in the fourth quarter. While there was were plenty of IoT-fueled DDoS attacks in the fourth quarter’s, none of the fourth quarter’s attack over 300 Gbps were IoT-based.

The data from Akamai’s Q4 2016 State of the Internet – Security Report, also shows that the number of web application attacks in Q4 was down; however, for four retail sub-verticals, the trend was upward. The attacks were all quite different, ranging from cyclic attacks against closely related targets, to a single burst of probes against a host of sites that were only related by the software they used.

Key trends noted in this quarter’s report include:

- At least 37 of the attacks this quarter came from Mirai.
- DDoS attack activity at a glance globally:
 *Of the 25 DDoS attack vectors tracked this quarter, the top three were UDP fragment (27%), DNS (21%), and NTP (15%).
 *There was an average of 30 DDoS attacks per target in Q3 2016 with the highest number reaching 427 attacks targeted at a single organization

Summary:
 
-For Q4 2016 vs. Q4 2015, there has been a 4 percent increase in total DDoS attacks;

-For Q4 2016 vs. Q3 2016, there has been a decrease of 16 percent in DDoS attacks;

-There have been 12 mega attacks that exceeded 100 Gbps, 5 of them exceeded 200 Gbps

-Of the 12 mega attacks, 5 targeted the media and entertainment sector; 5 targeted the gaming sector; and 2 targeted software and technology companies;

-In the past 2 years, four botnets generated 10 DDoS attacks exceeding 300 Gbps between July 2014 – December 2016, seven of this occurred in 2016;

-US is still the leading country that has the most sources of web applications attack traffic, while China has the most web application attack traffic in Asia;

-For Q4 2016 vs Q3 2016, the total number of web application attacks decreased by 27 percent;

For the full Q4 2016 State of the Internet – Security Report please download the file from: akamai.com/stateoftheinternet-security

About Akamai
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere. To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

SOURCE : Arcis Communications

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