A new report from Zayo Group reveals there has been an 82% increase in attack frequency between 2023 and 2024. Attack volume increased from 90,000 incidents in 2023 to 165,000 in 2024, as cyber criminals leverage AI and growing adoption of IoT devices to launch faster, more persistent, and more complex attacks.
“We’re seeing attackers use larger botnets of compromised IoT devices and AI to drastically increase the scale of attacks,” said Max Clauson, Senior Vice President of Network Connectivity, Zayo. “As the sophistication of DDoS attacks continues to grow, cybercriminals are finding ways to exploit cloud services, higher bandwidth availability, and new vulnerabilities in software and network protocols. Both the public and private sector need to invest heavily in DDoS mitigation to continue to protect critical infrastructure and ensure long-term data security.”
Key findings from the report include:
- Finance saw the largest year-over-year attack volume growth of all sectors, surging from 3.5% of all attacks in 2023 to 7% in 2024
- Telecommunications is still the most targeted sector, but other industries are catching up. In 2024, telecommunications represented 42% of all observed incidents, down from 48% of all attacks in 2023
- Cloud and SaaS companies experienced a rise in attacks, accounting for 11% of all attacks with more than 19,000 throughout the year – 15,740 of which occurred in the second half of 2024 alone
- Healthcare saw a 223% growth in the total number of attacks targeting it between 2023 and 2024
- Manufacturing continues to explode as a large-scale target, with the average attack size growing 257% from 2023 to 2024
The financial toll of these attacks is significant: at $6,000 per minute with an average attack lasting 39 minutes, businesses lose almost $234,000 per incident. Cyber criminals strategically time their attacks to maximise disruption, as the majority occur during business hours. There is an anticipated rise in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), allowing individuals with limited technical skills to perpetuate attacks.
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