The number of DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks increased 52 per cent in Q4 2021, compared to Q3 2021, according to a report by Kaspersky. This is 4.5 times more than at the same time last year.

“Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks pose a huge threat to businesses and organisations that provide online services,” explained Kaspersky.

“During such an attack, cybercriminals send multiple requests to the attacked web resource with the aim of exceeding the website’s capacity to handle multiple requests and prevent the website from functioning correctly. These attacks may last several days, causing huge disruptions for organisations,” it added.

Huge spike in number of DDOS attacks

Kaspersky researchers observed a massive increase in the number of DDoS attacks from October to the end of December 2021, a record number in the entire history of Kaspersky’s observations of this threat.

They defined several reasons for such an increased volume of attacks. According to the report, the number of such attacks is usually high during these three months of any year. The number of attacks increase as online retail peaks due to sales and holidays, the exam period for students starts and cyber activists, generally, become more active.

Secondly, the volume of the DDoS market is inversely proportional to the cryptocurrency market. “This is due to the capacity for organising DDoS and cryptocurrency mining being interchangeable – botnet owners tend to redirect the power to mining when the cryptocurrency grows and to DDoS when it falls,” according to the report.

This is what was observed in the fourth quarter, an increase in the number of DDoS attacks against the backdrop of a sharp drop in the value of cryptocurrencies.

Most of the DDoS attacks in Q4 were reported in the US (43.55 per cent), China (9.96 per cent), Hong Kong (8.80 per cent), Germany (4.85 per cent), and France (3.75 per cent).

Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia) said, “It is important to note that these Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks could take down the functioning of a business organisation for days and give way to ransomware attackers, too, inflicting massive damage deep within the systems.”

“As expected by Kaspersky research, these attacks have risen in number in the backdrop of the large dip that the cryptocurrency market is witnessing. The correlation is largely due to the redeployment of resources necessary for crypto mining towards coordinating such attacks, lucrative as they are. As a result, large organisations are under particular threat of DDoS attacks. Appropriate preventive measures are the only way to deal with the situation,” said Kaura.

”The DDoS threat landscape is constantly changing, reflecting the current economic and social trends. We expected the growth of DDoS attacks in Q4 due to the sales season, but the unstable situation in the cryptocurrency market puts the DDoS landscape on another level completely, with an absolute record in the number of attacks. Relying on the trends of previous years, the first quarter of 2022 should not show a significant decrease in DDoS attacks. Thus, we urge implementing professional solutions to safeguard your organisation against DDoS attacks,” said Alexander Gutnikov, security expert at Kaspersky.