The rate of ransom distributed denial-of-service or RDDoS attacks was observed to have dropped in the first quarter of 2022 based on the latest statistics provided by security analysts.
The RDDoS operators hit a targeted firm with massive data to cause their servers a service outage. Upon disrupting the firm’s service, the threat actors will demand a large ransom to stop the attack. Analysts explain that causing service outages to firms would force them to pay the threat operators’ financial requests, especially since the firms would need their services to function again.
RDDoS attacks are different from DDoS since the latter uses more pressure on the victims aside from encrypting their files and publishing their stolen sensitive data.
A report revealed that RDDoS attacks drastically dropped in the year’s first quarter.
Only 17% of victims reported being attacked and extorted in January, while 6% and 3% were recorded in February and March. The findings show a 52% decrease in these attacks compared to last year’s first quarter. Experts are still detecting the root cause of the recent drop in rates.
A trend data analysis in the first quarter of 2022 showed a 164% year-over-year uptick in application-layer DDoS attacks. The consumer electronics sector and online media firms found the most striking data within the application-layer DDoS category, with a 5,086% QoQ and 2,131% QoQ increase in rates.
Analysts also studied the developing trend called the reflection-amplification method, which they perceived to be under active exploitation within the threat landscape this year. These attacks begin with a small packet reflected in a closed server while its size intensifies upon each bounce. The final massive traffic volume will be channelled to a targeted server upon reaching its upper limit.
Another exploitation found by analysts in the recent study was the abuse of the Lantronix Discovery Protocol against many IoT devices. The threat actors in this operation use 4-byte requests to attack exposed Lantronix devices. The operation generates a 30-byte response that attains an amplification ratio of 7.5x. Experts believe the ratio could be powerful if hordes of devices are collected in an attack.
A massive surge in volumetric DDoS attacks has also been recorded, with 645% QoQ for those with over 100 Gbps and 300% QoQ for those over 10 Mpps.
Despite the record-breaking drop rates for DDoS attacks, cybersecurity researchers suppose that the threat actors are only developing new methods behind the scenes to return and continue disrupting servers and victimising firms.
