The average size of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks rose dramatically during the first half of 2013, reaching 2.7Gbps in June.
Arbor Networks’s latest data considers DDoS to be a continuous global threat, with an apparent rise in attack size, pace and complexity.
Arbor Networks solutions architect Darren Anstee said the findings came from its threat analysis network, ATLAS.
"What we see on a daily basis is an escalation in the size, frequency and complexity of attacks," Anstee said.
"The resiliency of this attack vector is incredible, and with all of the tools available today that enable anyone to launch or participate in attacks, we don’t see a slow down at all."
During January to June 2013, the average bits per second (BPS) attack size rose 43%, with about 46.5% of attacks 1Gbps in size, representing a 13.5% rise from 2012.
The report also revealed that the proportion of attacks in the 2-10Gbps range more than doubled to 29.8% from 14.78% last year, while proportion of attacks 10Gbps in size grew to 41.6%.
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Infonetics Research principal network security analyst Jeff Wilson said: "The increasing volume of highly visible attacks, including a mix of politically motivated attacks, state-sponsored electronic warfare, social activism, organised crime, and good old fashioned pointless mischief and mayhem is being driven by the easy availability of bots/botnets for hire and easily distributed crowd-sourced attack tools."
However, attack durations were on a downward trend, with 86% now lasting less than one hour, while packets per second (PPS) attacks sizes also dropped.
