Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the Middle East are close to the global average after several years of dramatic rises, according to Mahmoud Samy, Regional Director for high-growth markets at Arbor Networks, the security division of Netscout.
Speaking to Lynchpin Media’s Editorial Consultant, Eliot Beer, Samy said compared to the moderate level of attacks three to four years ago, the region has seen significant growth in the overall volume of DDoS attacks: “The average of attacks in the Middle East a few years ago was below 1Gbit – now we’re talking about 2.4-3Gbit, which is not far from the global average. This is the average, not the peak – we know some organisations here have been under attack with 100Gbit and above.
“If you look worldwide, when the Middle East was below 1Gbit as an average, the global average was around 1.5Gbit, and the peak was reaching something like 200Gbit. There was one attack in Japan that went to 250Gbit. Last year we saw an attack reach 300Gbit,” added Samy, saying the main DDoS targets were governments, banks, and any business with a significant online business presence that attackers could hurt.
He also said some attackers were now targeting network security devices themselves: “These attacks at targeted mainly at security devices people are relying on to protect them. I’m not suggesting that enterprises have to take firewalls and IPSs out – but they need to know they are part of the problem, not the solution, when it comes to DDoS. But of course they have a function – so we recommend to keep them, but have a layer of DDoS protection.”
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