The news follows the release of its quarterly distributed denial of service (DDoS) report for Q2 2021, which found that the second quarter of 2021 was particularly active for cybercriminals.
The report also found that the biggest DDoS for the period was 419Gbps in bandwidth, 132Mpps by packet rate, the longest attack the company mitigated for a single customer lasted 10 days and 38% of all DDoS mitigations were multi-vector.
"We are witnessing a rise in ransom DDoS attacks, where cybercriminals threaten to execute a DDoS attack unless a ransom is paid," said Mike Benjamin, vice president of security at Lumen and Black Lotus Labs.
"The threat actors aren't just looking to disrupt – they are frequently running criminal campaigns looking to make a profit. Some businesses are purely digital, and that makes them more vulnerable, because when the potential attack surface increases, this also increases the opportunity for threat actors. The best defense is a DDoS mitigation service that stops these attacks before they happen."
Other key findings from the report include statistics on IoT Botnets which saw a 22% increase in unique C2s (command-and-control attacks) tracked across Gafgyt and Mirai, a 173% increase in the number of botnets hosted in Brazil, there was an 11 day increased in Gafgyt lifespan, an 18 day increased in Mirai lifespan, 431 was the most C2s hosted in a single country – the US, and 131 was the most C2s issuing commands from a single country – US.
Recommendations for enterprises include monitor the level of their incoming network traffic tolook for unexpected spikes that deviate from their baselines, and to always be prepared for an attack with an effective plan in place with a DDoS mitigation provider.
In addition, the security team at Lumen analysed intelligence from Black Lotus Labs – the company's threat research arm – and attack trends from the Lumen DDoS Mitigation Service platform – which also contributed to the findings of the report.
