CDN and cybersecurity firm Akamai warns of a worrying escalation in ransom DDoS attacks since the beginning of the year.
The company recently mitigated three of the six biggest volumetric DDoS attacks it has ever dealt, two of which were ransom DDoS attacks.
One of these two ransom DDoS attacks targeted a gambling company in Europe and peaked at 800Gbps, but the most worrisome aspect of the attack was its sophistication.
According to the company, the rise of the Bitcoin price is motivating the cybercriminals in intensifying their efforts and their attack bandwidth to carry out powerful attacks with extortion purposes.
“The most recent extortion attack — peaking at more than 800 Gbps and targeting a European gambling company — was the biggest and most complex we’ve seen since the widespread return of extortion attacks that kicked off in mid-August 2020. Since the start of the campaign, show-of-force attacks have grown from 200+ Gbps in August to 500+ Gbps by mid-September, then ballooned to 800+ Gbps by February 2021.” reads the analysis published by Akamai. “But the size of the extortion attack wasn’t the only notable characteristic of the actors’ modus operandi.”
