DDoS attacks up 287 percent as online gaming and gambling become prime targets
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A lockdown increase in online gaming activity has inevitably attracted attention from attackers, resulting in nearly 77 percent of cyberattacks targeting the online gaming and gambling industries in Q3 of 2020.
The latest DDoS Threat Report from Nexusguard also reveals a huge 287 percent increase in total DDoS attacks in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.
It's understandable that gamers have become an irresistible target for attackers. They are emotionally engaged, socially active, and often spend their disposable income on their gaming accounts. Although online gaming is highly sensitive to latency and packet loss, Nexusguard researchers warn that sensitive detection and high-capacity mitigation alone are insufficient to overcome large DDoS attacks. Gaming enterprises and service providers must collaborate to combat attack tactics through a combination of technology, knowledge sharing and best security practices.
"Online gaming is snowballing in part due to the growth of cloud computing as well as the limited options for home entertainment during the pandemic, providing cyber attackers with a wide population of targets to exploit," says Juniman Kasman, chief technology officer for Nexusguard. "Game service providers, CSPs and other organizations should take steps to safeguard service, including segregating applications to minimize collateral damage or rehearsing incident response drills to reduce service disruption during attacks."
The report shows 99.5 percent of cyberattacks against online were volumetric in nature, with 99.4 percent consisting of single vector attacks. The perpetrators aim to consume maximum bandwidth so that gamers suffer the side effects of latency and then switch to game server hosts with faster and more stable connectivity.
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