Akamai Technologies has released its Second Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet / Security Report. The report, using data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, highlights the cloud security landscape, specifically trends with DDoS and web application attacks, as well as malicious traffic from bots.
“While attack sizes are decreasing, we continue to see an uptick in the number of attacks as launch tools grow increasingly pervasive and easy to use and monetise,” said Martin McKeay, Editor-in-Chief, State of the Internet / Security Report. “This commoditisation renders businesses vulnerable to a higher frequency of attacks they can’t defend against on their own. As we look toward Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, it is important for organisations to understand what they are up against, specifically as adversaries increasingly threaten DDoS attacks for ransom.”
Highlights from Akamai’s Second Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet / Security Report include:
DDoS Attacks
- Total DDoS attacks increased 129 percent in Q2 2016 from Q2 2015. During the second quarter, Akamai mitigated a total of 4,919 DDoS attacks.
- Akamai observed its largest DDoS to date at 363 Gbps on 20th June against a European media customer. At the same time, the median attack size fell by 36 percent to 3.85 Gbps.
- Twelve attacks observed during Q2 exceeded 100 Gbps and two that reached 300 Gbps targeted the media and entertainment industry.
Web Application Attacks
- Q2 2016 showed a 14 percent increase in total web application attacks from Q1 2016.
- Brazil experienced a 197 percent increase in attacks sourced from the region – the top country of origin for all web application attacks.
- The United States, ranked second among countries for total web application attacks, saw a 13 percent decrease in attacks compared to Q1 2016.
- SQL Injection (44 percent) and Local File Inclusion (45 percent) were the two most common attack vectors in Q2.
Bot Traffic Analysis
- During one 24-hour period in Q2, bots accounted for 43 percent of all web traffic across the Akamai Intelligent Platform.
- Detected automation tools and scraping campaigns represented 63 percent of all bot traffic, a 10 percent increase from Q1 2016. These bots scrape specific websites or industry segments and do not identify their intentions and origin.
A complimentary copy of the Q2 2016 State of the Internet / Security Report is available for download at akamai.com/stateoftheinternet-security.
