Zayo Group has published its latest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Insights Report, revealing a dramatic 106% increase in DDoS attacks from the second half of 2023 to the first half of 2024.
This surge in attacks highlights the urgent need for businesses to bolster their cybersecurity defences as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to amplify the scale and sophistication of these threats.
The report reveals that the average DDoS attack now lasts 45 minutes, an 18% increase from the same period last year. This escalation in attack duration is costly, with unprotected organisations losing approximately $270,000 per attack, or about $6,000 per minute.
DDoS attacks, which overwhelm targeted systems with a flood of internet traffic, have become increasingly easy to execute due to advancements in AI and bot-based technologies. These tools allow attackers to launch more frequent, sustained, and high-volume attacks with minimal resources or technical expertise. The widespread availability of AI has also contributed to the diversification of targets, with industries such as HR and staffing, legal and consulting, and transportation now among the top 10% of the most severely affected sectors — a first in the history of Zayo's report.
Tema Hassan, senior product manager at Zayo Europe, commented. "Geopolitical conflicts have driven a surge in attacks on critical sectors like financial services, telecommunications, and internet service providers, which are crucial to national infrastructure," Hassan said. "New attack techniques exploiting vulnerabilities in modern web protocols like HTTP/2 have emerged, adding further complexity to the threat landscape. Despite these challenges, traditional DNS-based attacks remain prevalent and have grown in scale."
In response to these growing threats, European countries are enacting stricter cybersecurity regulations to strengthen defences against DDoS attacks and other evolving threats.
Max Clauson, Zayo's senior vice president of Network Connectivity, echoed these concerns, noting that DDoS attacks in the AI era have become a persistent and widespread threat across all industries.
"Our latest report confirms that the heightened level of DDoS activity is the new norm," Clauson said. "If this trend continues, we anticipate a further 24% increase in attacks by the end of the year. The only effective defence is for businesses to incorporate robust protection into their technology stacks. When a business is adequately protected, attackers are more likely to move on to less secure targets."
