The volume of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the second quarter of 2020 increased three-fold from the same period last year, according to new data from Kaspersky.
The Russian cybersecurity vendor claimed in its Kaspersky Q2 2020 DDoS attacks report that it detected and blocked 217% more DDoS attempts than in Q2 2019.
This appears to run counter to usual seasonal trends, which see DDoS attacks peak at the start of the year and then decline through late spring and summer, it said. The volume of detected attacks fell 39% from Q1 2019 to Q2 2019, for example, and by 34% for the same period in 2018.
However, this year, the volume of detected attacks increased by 30% from the first to the second quarters, according to Kaspersky.
What’s more, the highest number of attacks per day reached nearly 300 in the second quarter (on April 9), while in Q1 2020 the record was 242.
Alexey Kiselev, business development manager on the Kaspersky DDoS Protection team, argued that the uptick in DDoS activity may be tied to the impact of the pandemic on computer users.
“This year, people have not been able to enjoy a normal holiday season as many regions have kept COVID-19 lockdown measures in place. This has left more people than usual still depending on online resources for both personal and work-related activities, making this summer a busy period for online businesses and information resources,” he explained.
“As a result, we saw unprecedented activity in the DDoS market. And so far, there is no reason to predict a decline.”
The firm urged organizations to ensure they have round-the-clock support in place to manage critical web resources, validate agreements and contact info with ISPs to support rapid response, and to choose effective DDoS prevention from a proven provider.