DDoS attacks are becoming more sophisticated, disrupting online services with massive traffic surges that cause downtime, financial losses, and reputational damage. According to research from Microsoft, 1.25 million DDoS attacks were mitigated in just six months – a fourfold increase compared to the previous year.
With attackers shifting towards stealthier application-layer and loop attacks, traditional defences are proving less effective, putting critical services at greater risk. To help you stay ahead of the growing threat of DDoS attacks, this blog explores how these attacks are evolving, the latest emerging risks, and key strategies to strengthen your defences and ensure your services remain accessible.
What are DDoS Attacks?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a cyberattack designed to disrupt or disable a website or online service by overwhelming it with massive amounts of traffic from multiple sources.
DDoS attacks can have severe consequences for businesses, including downtime, revenue loss, reputational damage, and increased operational costs. Implementing strong protection measures is essential to ensure business continuity and resilience.
The Evolution of DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are evolving, with a growing emphasis on application-layer attacks. While traditional network-level attacks have surged, peaking at 4,500 attacks per day by June, there has also been a significant increase in attacks targeting medium-sized applications.
Unlike network-based attacks, application-layer DDoS attacks are stealthier, more complex, and harder to detect. These attacks, generating between 100,000 and 1 million packets per second, specifically target web applications, making it easier for attackers to bypass volumetric DDoS defences.
For industries where availability is critical, such as online banking and airline check-ins, even a brief disruption can lead to financial losses, customer dissatisfaction, and operational setbacks, highlighting the urgent need for stronger, more adaptive defences.
The Looming Risk of Loop Attacks
Recent research from Microsoft has uncovered a new type of cyberattack that exploits vulnerabilities in the protocols that form the backbone of our internet communication. Known as the “loop attack,” this threat exposes a fundamental weakness in application-layer protocols that rely on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). According to the Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA), as many as 300,000 application servers worldwide could be at risk.
Unlike conventional DDoS attacks, the loop attack doesn’t rely on overwhelming a target with traffic. Instead, it takes advantage of essential internet protocols, including TFTP, DNS, and NTP, as well as legacy protocols such as Echo, Chargen, and QOTD, to trigger an endless loop of error messages between servers. This results in a rapid deterioration of service availability and network performance.
While traditional UDP-based flood attacks amplify traffic with each spoofed packet, loop attacks generate persistent, self-sustaining disruptions. A single carefully crafted packet is enough to set off a chain reaction, entangling multiple servers in a never-ending communication loop. Left unchecked, the resulting network overload can impact not only application servers but also underlying infrastructure.
Tips to Defend Against DDoS Attacks
By proactively strengthening defences and regularly evaluating security measures, organisations can reduce the impact of DDoS attacks and maintain service availability. Key strategies to enhance resilience and ensure secure, reliable services include:
1. Minimise Exposure
Reduce the attack surface by limiting the exposure of applications over the public internet whenever possible. Restricting access can significantly lower the risk of an attack.
2. Adopt a Layered Defence Strategy
For applications that need to be publicly accessible, a defence-in-depth approach is essential. Implement network-layer DDoS protection and, for web applications, deploy a web application firewall (WAF) to guard against sophisticated application-layer attacks.
3. Test and Adapt Regularly
Integrate DDoS simulations into the software development lifecycle and security operations to strengthen defences. Regular testing enhances resilience, improves response strategies, and ensures applications and workloads can withstand large-scale attacks.
How mobco Can Help
With DDoS attacks becoming more sophisticated, having the right protection in place is crucial. CWSI helps businesses strengthen their defences, minimise risk, and keep critical services running. Whether you are looking to assess vulnerabilities, implement advanced security measures, or refine your response strategy, we’re here to help.
Fill out the form below to speak with our experts and explore the best defence strategy for your organisation.
