Prolexic Technologies issued a high alert threat advisory on NTP amplification DDoS attacks. The attack method, fueled by availability of new DDoS toolkits that make generating high-bandwidth, high volume DDoS attacks against online targets simpler, has surged in popularity this year, escalating 371% in the last 30 days.

“During the month of February, we saw the use of NTP amplification attacks surge 371 percent against our client base,” said Stuart Scholly, SVP/GM Security, Akamai Technologies. “In fact, the largest attacks we've seen on our network this year have all been NTP amplification attacks.”

Recently, various new DDoS attack toolkits have made it easier for malicious actors to launch attacks with just a handful of servers. With the current batch of NTP amplification attack toolkits, malicious actors could launch 100 Gbps attacks (or larger) by leveraging vulnerable NTP servers.

The last 30 days, in particular, have shown an alarming rise in attacks. In just one month, between January and February, the average peak DDoS attack bandwidth increased 217.97%, and the average DDoS attack volume increased 807.48%.

The NTP amplification attacks, unlike other attacks in recent years, are not focused on any particular sector. Just a few of industries targeted by NTP amplification attacks in February included finance, gaming, internet and telecom, education and security.

The organization's threat advisory provides a detailed analysis of the threat, sample payloads, recommended protection, mitigated techniques and case studies on NTP amplification attack campaigns. PLXsert's NTP Amplification Attack threat advisory can be downloaded here. Learn more about the Top 10 DDoS Attack Trends for this year to gain insight and awareness to prevent potential risk.

Special Reports /

High Alert DDoS Threat Advisory

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