Prolexic: 1.4 Days Is the Average Duration of a Cyberattack

The third quarter report released by Prolexic reveals some interesting details about the tactics, average duration, origin countries and the volumes of cyberattacks that took place in the past period.

Figures show that most hits were actually SYN floods (24%), closely followed by ICMP floods (22%) and UD floods (19%), indicating a considerable rise in numbers and a change in tactics.

“First and foremost, I think the nature of DDoS attacks are changing.Attackers know most businesses have some level of DDoS protection and they are now starting to directly target DDoS mitigation equipment, most of which do not have the capacity to process the high packet per second attacks that are being used,” said Paul Sop, chief technology officer at Prolexic.

Most attacks turn out to be network layer attacks, at the other end of the stick being operations that targeted the application layer (17%).

While some people might think that hacks are an in-and-out job, in reality, an average attack lasts for 1.4 days, 1.5Gbps being the average speed of mitigated traffic during such a hit.

Like we've seen in previous reports, China is still the leader when it comes to countries from where attacks originate, the eastern country being responsible for 55% of all the hits. India and Turkey complete the podium.

The online gambling industry was most targeted, probably since hackers consider these websites a place where a lot of money can be easily taken. Other findings show that most attacks took place between August 19 and August 25, investigations revealing that August was the most active month for cybercriminals.

“Prolexic technicians are on the front lines fighting DDoS attacks every day, therefore, we’re able to gather valuable data on the tactics, types, origins, and targets of these attacks,” Sop added.

“As a service to our customers and the global business community, Prolexic will publish a report each quarter to provide greater insight into current DDoS trends and threats.”