MANILA, Philippines – Content delivery network and cloud services firm Akamai said on Tuesday, June 7, that there was an increase in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and web application attacks in the first quarter of 2016.

The firm announced its findings through an executive review and infographic of its latest State of the Internet report on security.

The State of the Internet reports provide analysis of data gathered by Akamai over time. The reports focus on one of 3 different sections: connectivity, security, and cybersecurity threat advisories.

Akamai said there was a 125% increase in total DDoS attacks compared to the first quarter of 2015, with the increase driven largely by repeat attacks on customers as opposed to a broadening of the numbers and types of targets.

While most targets were attacked an average of 29 times each during the quarter, one customer was attacked 283 times, or around 3 times a day. The first quarter of 2016 also saw 19 “mega attacks” exceeding 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps).

Multi-vector attacks were also growing more common, as nearly 60% of the DDoS attacks used at least two attack vectors, thus making defense more difficult. Akamai believes the multi-vector attack capability of DDoS attackers is now a “standard capability in the DDoS-for-hire marketplace and accessible to even the least skilled actors.”

The firm also said gaming companies are the most targeted by DDoS attacks at 55%, followed by the software and technology industry at 25%. Other notable industries impacted were media and entertainment (5%), financial services (4%), Internet and telecom (4%), education (3%), the public sector (2%), and retail and consumer goods (2%).

The top 5 source countries for DDoS attacks were China (27%), USA (17%), Turkey (10%), Brazil (9%), and South Korea (7%).

Web application attacks, meanwhile, increased by around 26% compared to the 4th quarter of 2015. Akamai also said 60% of web application attacks targeted US sites.

The top 5 source countries for web application attacks were the USA (43%), Brazil (12%), the Netherlands (8%), China (8%), and Romania (7%)

As of posting time, Akamai’s full report remained unavailable, but will be located on this page when published. – Rappler.com