DDoS attacks almost doubled in Q4 2019, Sundays were the busiest days: Kaspersky report

Botnet activity analysis shows that around 28% of attacks happened on weekends, with Sunday attacks growing by two and a half percentage points - reaching 13%.

According to the Kaspersky Q4 2019 DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks report, the number of attacks blocked by Kaspersky DDoS Protection in Q4 2018 amounted to only 56% of attacks detected in Q4 2019. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

According to the Kaspersky Q4 2019 DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks report, the number of attacks blocked by Kaspersky DDoS Protection in Q4 2018 amounted to only 56% of attacks detected in Q4 2019.

Further investigation of botnet activity revealed that around 28% of attacks happened on weekends, with Sunday attacks growing by two and a half percentage points - reaching 13%.

In Q4 2019, there were several large-scale DDoS attacks, including ones against financial institutions in South Africa, Singapore and Scandinavian countries. Cyberattacks were also targeted at the Labour party in the United Kingdom as an attempt to disrupt its digital systems, as well as against Minecraft servers set up in the Vatican.

This shows that DDoS is still a common attack method amongst cybercriminals seeking financial gain or driven by ideological motives, so organisations should be prepared for such attacks and understand how they evolve.

The Kaspersky report highlights that the main trend during the last quarter of 2019 was increased botnet activity on Sundays. While the growth may seem relatively small (two and a half percentage points), the share of DDoS attacks on this particular day of the week had otherwise been the lowest, and consistent, throughout the rest of the year (around 11% of attacks in Q1 and Q3, and 10% in Q2). In Q4, Thursday turned out to be the day with the least DDoS activity.

There was also a notable rise in so-called smart DDoS attacks, focusing on the application layer and carried out by skilled malefactors (as attacks in Q3 2019 were 73% of those in Q4 2019). Such an increase was quite predictable, since November to December is traditionally a popular time for online business and retail activity. However, Kaspersky experts did not identify a spike on Black Friday or Christmas holiday sales days.

"Despite the significant growth in general, the season turned out to be quieter than expected. We suggest that we didn't see a storm of attacks on certain days because companies expand their activity to engage with customers for the entirety of the holiday period. So, there is no need for cybercriminals to launch an attack to coincide with a specific event. However, attackers can still find a way to spoil your leisure time, as cybercrime is not an ordinary nine-to-five job, so it is important to ensure that your DDoS prevention solution can automatically protect your web assets," said Alexey Kiselev, Business Development Manager on the Kaspersky DDoS Protection team.

To help organisations protect themselves from DDoS attacks Kaspersky recommends taking the following steps:

- Assign specialists responsible for maintaining web resources operations. Ensure they know how to act in case of DDoS attacks and are ready to respond outside of their scheduled working hours

- Verify third-party agreements and contact information. This includes arrangements with an internet service provider, so that you can quickly reach it in case of an attack

-Implement professional solutions to protect the organization against attacks. For example, Kaspersky DDoS Protection combines Kaspersky's extensive expertise in combating cyberthreats and the company's unique in-house developments. The solution protects organizations against all types of DDoS attacks regardless of when they happen