In 2022, the number of DDoS attacks grew by 150% on a global basis compared to the previous year, according to the 2022 Global Threat Analysis Report from Radware, a provider of cybersecurity and application delivery solutions. The financial sector was the most attacked in 2022, with 53% of overall attack activity, followed by technology (20%) and healthcare (11%).
The number of attacks in the Americas increased even more, up 212% from 2021. More than half of the attacks were directed at organizations in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The Americas accounted for 35% of attacks, while 7% of attacks targeted organizations in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.
“’More’ was the buzzword in the global threat landscape in 2022. Compared to 2021, not only did we have more DDoS attacks in terms of volume, but they were also more powerful, frequent and complex, spanning more attack vectors,” he commented. Pascal Geenens, Director of Threat Intelligence at Radware. “Strong growth can be attributed in part to digitalisation, the war in Ukraine and a high presence of new vulnerabilities and exposed services driven by remote access to work from home during the Covid pandemic. Ongoing tensions between major world powers have also led to an increase in state-sponsored espionage activities and cyberattacks.”
The frequency of DDoS attacks has also seen a significant increase: globally, organizations mitigated an average of 29.3 attacks per day during Q4 2022, three and a half times higher compared to 8.4 attacks per day at the end from 2021.
Attacks on web applications and APIs grew by 128% in the year, significantly surpassing the 88% increase in attacks between 2020 and 2021. Together, code injection (14%) and SQL injection (11%) attacks accounted for a quarter of attacks on web applications. The industries most attacked were retail and wholesale trade (25%), followed by high technology (20%) and telecom operators (15%), together accounting for 60% of attacks on web applications blocked.
Radware’s full 2022 Global Threat Analysis report can be accessed on the website.
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