The latest State of the Internet report confirms record numbers for the number of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks in Q2 of this year. Alarmingly, they’re also stronger than they’ve ever been.

Akamai’s State of the Internet report has confirmed that DDoS attacks have spiked by six percent from the last quarter. Staggeringly, the number of attacks have gone up a mind-boggling 132 percent, compared to the same quarter last year, reports Security Magazine.

In the same quarter:

There were 12 attacks that pushed beyond 100 GbpS (gigabits per second).

The largest attack measured was a ridiculously high 240 Gbps and lasted for more than 13 hours.

Akamai also added that it recorded the highest packet rate attacks, peaking at 214 million packets per second.

Furthermore, average peak bandwidth went up 15.46 percent from Q1 this year.

The biggest DDoS attack was particularly striking because of the duration of the attack. The average attack lasts typically about 1 to 2hours before being curbed.

A near constant that has lasted over multiple reports is the originating source for the most number of DDoS attacks – China.

Additionally, the US and the UK figured second and third respectively, after China.

Another constant for over a year is the most inundated target of DDoS attacks – online gaming networks, the report confirms. Gaming networks are the most targeted victims, with 35 percent of all DDoS strikes pointing their way. The telecom industry is another sought-after target for such attacks.

John Summers, VP of Akamai’s Cloud Security Business Unit had this to say:

“The threat posed by distributed denial of service (DDoS) and web application attacks continues to grow each quarter,” before adding: “Malicious actors are continually changing the game by switching tactics, seeking out new vulnerabilities and even bringing back old techniques that were considered outdated.”

SSDP and SYN protocols were among the most common attack vectors used for DDoS strikes. The report said each one accounts for 16 percent of DDoS traffic in the second quarter of this year. Such numbers are due to the reality of a plethora of devices that are unsecured while making use of the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) protocol.

David Fernandez from Akamai’s PLXsert team adds that attack tools are more frequently accessible to malicious attackers, enabling them to locate vulnerable devices which altogether makes for a lucrative industry, thanks to an established monetized framework.

“DDoS for hire attacks are becoming more popular,” he noted, speaking to Security Magazine.

The entire State of the Internet report is downloadable here.