The number of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks decreased in the third quarter of 2020, according to data from cybersecurity firm.
The analysis of commands received from command and control servers also demonstrates this decline, said a DDoS Protection report from Kaspersky, adding that despite the overall stabilization of the DDoS market during the year, the quarter still saw a year-on-year rise, and the year's highest number of attacks in a single day, totalling 323.
Lockdown increased users' reliance on online services, so in the first two quarters of the year, there was a spike of DDoS attacks aimed at disrupting their work. Educational and administrative resources were hit particularly heavily. However, Q3 results showed that DDoS activity is returning to normal, said Kaspersky.
In Q3 2020, the company said that it detected 73 per cent fewer attacks than in the previous quarter. However, compared to the same period in 2019, this figure has seen a one-and-a-half times year-on-year increase. This means that the decline observed during Q3 can mostly be explained by the abnormal rise of attacks in the second quarter.
The analysis of commands received by bots from command and control servers also revealed a drop in DDoS attacks. On average, 106 attacks per day were carried out in Q3, while there were 10 more in the previous quarter. Nevertheless, while things have been quieter – there were three days where only one attack was registered – some periods still saw high DDoS activity.
The most noticeable was July 2 which saw a record-breaking 323 attacks, the highest number for the whole of 2020. The previous peak was 298 attacks, registered back in April.
The cybersecurity firm said that many companies were not prepared for remote working or didn't consider their web assets as critical. However, the situation is improving as more businesses have managed to strengthen their cyber-defences to mitigate this security weakness.
