8 April 2021

The Quantity and Power of DDoS Attacks in 2021 Will Increase Significantly

According to StormWall experts, in 2021 the global quantity of DDoS attacks on companies' online resources will increase by at least 20% compared to last year. DDoS attacks have shown steady growth for several years in a row, and will increase even more in 2021 due to a number of new factors: the emergence of a large number of emerging cyber criminals among students and schoolchildren in connection with the transition to distance learning, an increase in the criticality of Internet services due to that many employees work remotely, while most companies continue to actively develop online businesses.

In addition, the Internet has become a more “DDoS-aggressive” environment: in the beginning of 2021, new powerful tools for organizing DDoS attacks appeared on the Internet, available to a wide range of consumers, for example, the ability to access 400 Gbps attack launched from real devices for only $500 per week via Telegram. It is often possible to organize such a powerful attack for free – by introducing yourself as a potential buyer and requesting a test for a few minutes, while the attack will most likely affect not only the victim itself, but also several Internet providers on the way to it, leaving no access to the Internet for thousands of users and online resources.

Experts warn that the power of DDoS attacks will also increase in 2021 due to the development of 5G networks. Using this technology, it will be possible to launch a DDoS attack with a capacity of more than 1 Gbps from each mobile device. If an attacker possesses tens or hundreds of thousands of infected smartphones, tablets and IoT devices, then the attack volume can reach several Tbps and it will be incredibly difficult to repel it.

Experts note that recently hackers have begun to act more intelligently, they increasingly launch attacks using bots that can automatically bypass common protection methods. New types of DDoS attacks are expected to emerge, presumably targeting UDP, as protection of UDP applications is often not as effective as for ones using TCP protocol. This is primarily online games, VoIP services and the QUIC protocol, which Google and Facebook use to speed up their web resources.

In connection with the new threats, various types of perimeter security solutions (Anti-DDoS, WAF, anti-bot, IDS/IPS) will tend to be integrated into a single complex that will be able to ensure the security of customers' Internet perimeter. Also, AI technologies will be used more and more to protect online resources since it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish an attacking bot from a real user.