In the first half of 2021, cybercriminals launched around 5.4 million Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks, according to Netscout Systems’ latest Threat Intelligence Report.

This represents an 11 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

The company’s data projections point to another record-setting year in 2021, on track to surpass over 11 million global DDoS attacks.

The business’ security engineering and response team expect this trend to continue and warn that this could fuel a “growing cybersecurity crisis that will continue to impact public and private organisations.”

In the wake of Colonial Pipeline, JBS, Harris Federation, Australian broadcaster Channel Nine, CNA Financial, and several other high-profile attacks, the impact of DDoS and other cybersecurity attacks has been felt worldwide.

"Cybercriminals are making front-page news launching an unprecedented number of DDoS attacks to take advantage of the pandemic's remote work shift by undermining vital components of the connectivity supply chain," said Richard Hummel, threat intelligence lead, Netscout. "Ransomware gangs added triple-extortion DDoS tactics to their repertoire.

“Simultaneously, the Fancy Lazarus DDoS extortion campaign kicked into high gear threatening organisations in multiple industries with a focus on ISPs and specifically their authoritative DNS servers."

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