Throughout the year, metrics were collected from all DDoS attacks launched against the company’s global client base by the Prolexic Security Engineering & Response Team (PLXsert) using proprietary techniques and equipment. Through digital forensics and post-attack analysis, PLXsert is able to build a global view of the evolving DDoS threat.

“It was a dynamic 12 months for DDoS attacks,” said Stuart Scholly, president of Prolexic. “The tools used by malicious actors in 2013 and the tactics they adopted changed considerably, reflecting the on-going evolution of the DDoS threat.”

Top 10 ddos attack trends for 2013:

DDoS attack volume continued to rise with Prolexic mitigating 32.43 percent more attacks in 2013 than it did in 2012

DDoS attack volume also increased month-to-month in 2013, with 10 out of 12 months showing higher attack volume compared to 2012

Smaller, stealthy and more sophisticated application layer (Layer 7) attacks increased approximately 42 percent

High bandwidth, volumetric infrastructure layer (Layer 3 & 4) attacks increased approximately 30 percent

DNS, UDP, and UDP fragmentation floods, as well as CHARGEN, were the attack vectors that showed the most adoption in 2013

SYN and ICMP floods were the attack vectors that showed the most decline in use

Average DDoS attack sizes continued to increase with Prolexic mitigating numerous attacks over 100 Gbps, the largest peaking at 179 Gbps

Reflected amplification attacks emerged as a very popular attack method

Mobile devices and apps began participating in DDoS campaigns

DDoS attacks were more likely to originate from Asian countries

“It is critical in 2014 that enterprise defenses continue to keep pace with the changing DDoS threat,” said Scholly. “In addition to increasing vigilance and knowledge, enterprises should also validate services from any mitigation providers they have retained to ensure the latest threats can be blocked quickly and effectively.”