DDoS-for-Hire Attacks Drop by 85% After Major Hacker Services Shut Down

In December 2018, law enforcement agencies from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands announced the shutdown of 15 major DDoS-for-hire services and the arrest of several suspects. According to investigators, just one of these services had over 2,000 clients and was responsible for 200,000 DDoS attacks between October 2014 and November 2018.

Experts from Nexusguard have reported that this operation had a significant impact. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the total number of DDoS attacks dropped by 11% compared to the same period in 2017, while the power of the attacks (the amount of traffic directed at targets) fell by an impressive 85.36%. However, when comparing the third and fourth quarters of 2018, the attack power actually increased slightly by 3.75%.

Specialists also noted a decrease in the number of attacks using UDP, TCP SYN, and ICMP, while SSDP amplification attacks saw a massive increase of 3,122.22% compared to 2017.

The duration of attacks continues to rise as well: over the year, the average attack duration increased by 175.61%, reaching an average of 450 minutes. The longest recorded DDoS attack lasted 18 days, 21 hours, and 59 minutes.

Despite the significant changes following the shutdown of the 15 DDoS-for-hire services, Nexusguard analysts believe that the joint operation by the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies only scratched the surface of this global issue. Companies continue to suffer due to unpatched software and hardware, human error, and the emergence of new attack methods, especially with the ongoing growth and development of the Internet of Things (IoT).