In its “Q1 2016 State of the Internet – Security Report”, Akamai said it discovered that businesses globally, especially in fast-growing economies like Malaysia and Southeast Asian countries, were facing a growing threat that required them to accelerate their ability to mitigate the effects of such attacks.

“The sectors that remain a key focus area for attacks include financial services, software and technology, media and entertainment, public sector assets, education, Internet and telecom assets, retail, gaming, hotel, and travel services providers,” it added.

The report provides a detailed view of the global cloud security threat landscape and an in-depth analysis and insight into malicious activity observed across the Akamai Intelligent platform.

It cited primary and key findings of the DDoS attacks during the quarter under review.

Primary findings for this quarter included a significant growth in the number and frequency of DDoS and web application attacks launched against online assets.

This was compounded by that fact that the majority of attacks noted over the last quarter – 60% – used at least two attack vectors at once, making defence more difficult.

Another key fact noted was an increase of repeat attacks against online assets. One customer for instance noted over 280 attacks against them alone.

Mega attacks were also on the rise with 19 of them noted this quarter – a massive 137% increase.

These trends were also noted as being driven largely by repeat attacks on businesses rather than a broadening of the number of targets or a significant increase in large-scale attacks.

Other key trends noted included:

– Increased DDoS attacks. These were especially focused with more than half of the attacks (55%) targeting gaming companies, with another 25% targeting the software and technology industry.

– Continued rise of multi-vector DDoS attacks.

– Improvements to attack sensors.

– Substantial increase in attacks exceeding 100Gbps of over 137% from the previous quarter.

– Continued rise in the use of stresser/booter-based botnets by attackers.

The full “Q1 2016 State of the Internet – Security Report” can be downloaded from:
stateoftheinternet.com/security-report

– BERNAMA