DDoS Statistical Report for 2021

Key Observations for 2021

• In 2021, the total attack count and average attack size both fell by 13.32% and 50.00% respectively compared to the figures registered in 2020.
• Compared to 2020, the maximum attack size increased by 296.62%, with the maximum attack size clocking in at 699.20 Gbps.
• UDP based attacks, while remaining the most predominant type of attack in 2021, decreased by 38.28% YoY. The number of TCP based, ICMP based and other attacks however, increased over the same period a year ago.
• Amplification attacks decreased YoY by 12.18% while Application attacks increased YoY by 54.94%.

Trends

Over a 5 year period, there was a clear trend showing March consistently recording the highest number of attacks. Attacks in the summer months of June, July and August remained moderately active, but gradually began to tail off from September through to the end of the year. The cycle more or less repeated itself in the same vein the following spring, from March onwards.

Types of Attack Vectors

In 2021, UDP and DNS Amplification Attacks were the predominant two attack types, contributing 39.06% and 10.43% respectively, while TCP ACK Attacks ranked third at 9.70%. UDP and DNS Amplification Attacks decreased YoY by 20.86% and 3.76% respectively.

Attacks by Category

Volumetric (Direct Flood) attacks, contributing 79.33% of the total attacks recorded in 2021, increased by 8.73% YoY, while Volumetric (Amplification) attacks, contributing 17.65%, decreased by 12.18% YoY. Application attacks represented 3.03% of the attacks in 2021, an increase of 54.94% YoY.