Radware H1 2022 Report: Malicious DDoS Attacks Climb 203%

Radware, a New Jersey-based provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions, today released its First Half 2022 Global Threat Analysis Report, indicating that Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have tripled during the first six months of 2022.

“The threat landscape saw a marked shift in the first half of 2022,” said Pascal Geenens, director of threat intelligence for Radware. “As Russia invaded Ukraine, the cyber focus changed. It shifted from the consequences of the pandemic, including an increase in attack surfaces driven by work from home and the rise of underground crime syndicates to a ground swell of DDoS activity launched by patriotic hacktivists and new legions of threat actors.”

The first six months of 2022 were marked by a significant increase in DDoS activity across the globe. Attacks ranged from cases of hacktivism to terabit attacks in Asia and the United States.

The number of malicious DDoS attacks climbed 203% compared to the first six months of 2021, according to the report. There were 60% more malicious DDoS events during the first six months of 2022 than during the entire year of 2021.

During the first half of 2022, patriotic hacktivism increased dramatically. Both established and newly formed pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian cyber legions aimed to disrupt and create chaos by stealing and leaking information, defacements, and denial-of-service attacks.

“No organization in the world is safe from cyber retaliation at this time,” Geenens warns. “Online vigilantes and hacktivists could disrupt wider security efforts driven by nations and authorities. New legions of actors could introduce extreme unpredictability for intelligence services, creating a potential for spillover and wrongful attribution that could eventually lead to an escalation of the cyber conflict.”

Outside of the war realm, retail and high-tech topped the list of industries for most web attacks.

The mid-year report leverages intelligence provided by network and application attack activity sourced from Radware’s Cloud and Managed Services, Global Deception Network, and threat research team.

Channel Impact^®
The data suggest that the global political climate increases risks at widely ranging levels.