Recently Microsoft released its 2020 year-in-review report. In the report, Microsoft reported that 2022 saw a rise in DDoS attacks, with cybercriminals increasing the sophistication of their operations and adapting their techniques to counter the proactive approach organizations adopt. The conflict in Ukraine was a primary focus in the cyber threat landscape, resulting in the UK, US, and Germany being targeted by nation-state attackers and hacktivists seeking to disrupt Ukraine’s allies. The gaming industry was also heavily targeted, with a DDoS attack taking down the game servers of Among Us in March and the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game servers being targeted by a new version of RapperBot in the second half of the year.

Microsoft observed and mitigated over 520,000 unique DDoS attacks against its global infrastructure in 2022. TCP attacks were the most common attack vector, comprising 63% of all attack traffic, while UDP attacks accounted for 22% of all attacks. Most attacks were short, with 89% lasting less than one hour, and the US, India, and East Asia were the top regions targeted by attacks.

Politically motivated DDoS attacks were rampant in 2022, with hacker group Killnet targeting the western government, healthcare, education, and financial firms as a vocal supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine. IoT devices were also increasingly used in DDoS attacks, with new botnets emerging, such as Zerobot and MCCrash.

Microsoft reports that in 2023, DDoS attacks will likely continue to rise, with cybercriminals using them as distractions to hide more sophisticated attacks such as extortion and data theft. New DDoS botnets will emerge, and their attacks will cause significant disruption. There will also be a rise in DDoS attacks from account takeovers where malicious actors attempt to gain unauthorized access to resources and, in the process, inadvertently saturate their target’s network.

Organizations of all sizes need to be proactive, stay protected all year round, and develop a DDoS response strategy. Azure provides comprehensive solutions to protect data and resources from the most sophisticated DDoS attacks at any scale. Azure DDoS Protection provides always-on traffic monitoring, adaptive real-time tuning, and complete visibility on DDoS attacks with real-time telemetry, monitoring, and alerts. Customers using Azure DDoS Protection have access to the DDoS Rapid Response support (DRR) team to engage experts for help during an active attack. Protection is simple to enable and designed to meet the needs of all organizations, including a cost-effective SKU for small and medium businesses (SMBs).

The post Microsoft Looks Back on the Threat Landscape first appeared on PKTZ.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from PKTZ authored by pktzadmin. Read the original post at: https://pktz.news/2023/02/microsoft-looks-back-on-the-threat-landscape/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=microsoft-looks-back-on-the-threat-landscape