DUBAI, UAE: Cloudflare, Inc., the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, has announced its 2022 Q2 DDoS report. This report includes insights and trends about the DDoS threat landscape as observed across the global Cloudflare network.

Q2 has witnessed some of the largest attacks the world has ever seen including a 26 million request per second HTTPS DDoS attacks that Cloudflare automatically detected and mitigated. Furthermore, attacks against Ukraine and Russia continue, whilst a new Ransom DDoS attack campaign emerged.

Highlights of the DDoS Report

The Russian and Ukrainian Internet

  • The war on the ground is accompanied by attacks targeting the spread of information.
  • Broadcast Media companies in the Ukraine were the most targeted in Q2 by DDoS attacks. In fact, all the top five most attacked industries are all in online/Internet media, publishing, and broadcasting.
  • In Russia on the other hand, Online Media drops as the most attacked industry to the third place. Making their way to the top, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) companies in Russia were the most targeted in Q2; almost 45% of all application-layer DDoS attacks targeted the BFSI sector. Cryptocurrency companies in Russia were the second most attacked.

Ransom DDoS attacks

  • We’ve seen a new wave of Ransom DDoS attacks by entities claiming to be the Fancy Lazarus.
  • In June 2022, ransom attacks peaked to the highest of the year so far: one out of every five survey respondents who experienced a DDoS attack reported being subject to a Ransom DDoS attack or other threats.
  • Overall in Q2, the percent of Ransom DDoS attacks increased by 11% QoQ.

Application-layer DDoS attacks

  • In 2022 Q2, application-layer DDoS attacks increased by 72% YoY.
  • Organizations in the US were the most targeted, followed by Cyprus, Hong Kong, and China. Attacks on organizations in Cyprus increased by 166% QoQ.
  • The Aviation & Aerospace industry was the most targeted in Q2, followed by the Internet industry, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, and Gaming / Gambling in fourth place.

Network-layer DDoS attacks

  • In 2022 Q2, network-layer DDoS attacks increased by 109% YoY. Attacks of 100 Gbps and larger increased by 8% QoQ, and attacks lasting more than 3 hours increased by 12% QoQ.
  • The top attacked industries were Telecommunications, Gaming / Gambling and the Information Technology and Services industry.
  • Organizations in the US were the most targeted, followed by China, Singapore, and Germany. This report is based on DDoS attacks that were automatically detected and mitigated by Cloudflare’s DDoS Protection systems.

Commenting on the report, Bashar Bashaireh, Managing Director, Middle East & Turkey, Cloudflare says, “Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. A better Internet is one that is more secure, faster, and reliable for everyone even in the face of DDoS attacks. As part of our mission, since 2017, we’ve been providing unmetered and unlimited DDoS protection for free to all of our customers. Over the years, it has become increasingly easier for attackers to launch DDoS attacks. But as easy as it has become, we want to make sure that it is even easier — and free — for organizations of all sizes to protect themselves against DDoS attacks of all types.”