Prolexic Technologies issued a high alert threat advisory on NTPamplification DDoS attacks. The attack method, fueled byavailability of new DDoS toolkits that make generatinghigh-bandwidth, high volume DDoS attacks against online targetssimpler, has surged in popularity this year, escalating 371% in thelast 30 days.

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

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

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

The NTP amplification attacks, unlike other attacks in recentyears, are not focused on any particular sector. Just a few ofindustries targeted by NTP amplification attacks in Februaryincluded finance, gaming, internet and telecom, education andsecurity.

The organization's threat advisory provides a detailed analysisof the threat, sample payloads, recommended protection, mitigatedtechniques and case studies on NTP amplification attack campaigns.PLXsert's NTP Amplification Attack threat advisory can bedownloaded here. Learn more about the Top 10 DDoS Attack Trends for this year to gaininsight and awareness to prevent potential risk.