After collecting data from all Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attackslaunched against their client base, Prolexic Technologiesrevealed the top attack trends for 2013, building a global view ofthe evolving DDoS threat.

“It was a dynamic 12 months for DDoS attacks,” said StuartScholly, president of Prolexic. “The tools used by malicious actorsin 2013 and the tactics they adopted changed considerably,reflecting the on-going evolution of the DDoS threat.”

According to Prolexic's data, 10 identifiable trends forDDoS top the list.

1. DDoS attack volume continued to rise with Prolexic mitigating32.43% more attacks in 2013 than it did in 2012
2. DDoS attack volume also increased month-to-month in 2013, with10 out of 12 months showing higher attack volume compared to2012
3. Smaller, stealthy and more sophisticated application layer(Layer 7) attacks increased approximately 42%
4. High bandwidth, volumetric infrastructure layer (Layer 3 &4) attacks increased approximately 30%
5. DNS, UDP, and UDP fragmentation floods, as well as CHARGEN,were the attack vectors that showed the most adoption in 2013
6. SYN and ICMP floods were the attack vectors that showed themost decline in use
7. Average DDoS attack sizes continued to increase with Prolexicmitigating numerous attacks over 100 Gbps, the largest peaking at179 Gbps
8. Reflected amplification attacks emerged as a very popularattack method
9. Mobile devices and apps began participating in DDoScampaigns
10. DDoS attacks were more likely to originate from Asiancountries

“It is critical in 2014 that enterprise defenses continue tokeep pace with the changing DDoS threat,” Scholly said. “Inaddition to increasing vigilance and knowledge, enterprises shouldalso validate services from any mitigation providers they haveretained to ensure the latest threats can be blocked quickly andeffectively.”