In 2024, the cyber threat landscape saw an unprecedented surge in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, as Vercara UltraDDoS Protect detected a staggering 270,405 attacks this year. This represents a 16,073% increase compared to 2023 and translates to a monthly average of roughly 17,486 attacks. This dramatic escalation placed increased pressure on organizations to safeguard their online operations, while Vercara’s robust defenses prevented over 121,791 hours of potential downtime, ensuring that businesses remained resilient in the face of these relentless threats.
For details, see UltraDDoS Protect Annual Distributed Denial-of-Service Analysis January – December 2024.
2024 DDoS Attack Highlights
The past year was marked by record-breaking events that underscored the evolving tactics of threat actors. In October 2024, a single DDoS assault peaked at an astounding 1.4 Tbps in bandwidth and a record of 459.10 million packets per second. These numbers illustrate not only the sheer scale of some attacks but also the continuous drive by malicious actors to test the limits of mitigation systems. While the largest attacks made headlines, the majority of incidents—approximately 75%—were smaller in scale, ranging between 0.0 and 0.5 Gbps. This pattern points to the growing use of low-cost DDoS-for-hire services and the trend toward micro-targeting specific services and applications.
Check out the monthly DDoS Analysis Report to see the most up-to-date report.
How UltraDDoS Protect Prevents DDoS Attacks
As DDoS threats have become more sophisticated, attackers have adopted techniques such as carpet bombing, which involves targeting every IP address in a network block to overwhelm detection thresholds and bypass traditional mitigation approaches. In 2024, carpet bombing accounted for nearly 82.78% of all attacks and surged by 238.45% year over year. Vercara UltraDDoS Protect has been engineered to address these challenges by using advanced analytics and dynamic routing to quickly identify and neutralize such attacks. By leveraging real-time network monitoring and intelligent traffic steering, the system has not only reduced downtime but also minimized disruption to critical business operations. This proactive approach has allowed organizations to maintain seamless service continuity even when faced with rapid and voluminous attack vectors.
2024 DDoS Attack Trends and Vectors
Analysis of the attack vectors used throughout the year reveals important trends that shed light on the evolving nature of DDoS threats. The Total Traffic vector emerged as the most prevalent method, accounting for 36.46% of all observed attacks. This is closely followed by the TCP ACK and DNS Amplification vectors, which accounted for 14.05% and 13.16% of the attacks, respectively. The breakdown of these vectors suggests that while some attackers opt for high-volume assaults that rely on sheer bandwidth, many combine multiple vectors in a single campaign to increase the complexity and effectiveness of their efforts. Approximately 54.86% of attacks were launched using a single vector, while the remaining 45.14% involved multiple vectors. This diverse approach to attack methodologies demonstrates the need for multilayered defenses that can adapt in real-time to changing attack patterns.
Industry And Geographic DDoS Attack Analysis
The impact of DDoS attacks is not confined to a single industry or geographic region. In 2024, the most frequently targeted sector was Communication Service Providers, which accounted for 69.39% of all attacks, followed by the Financial Services sector at 25.44% and Software Web Services at 2.47%. This targeting reflects the critical role these industries play in the modern digital economy and the desire of threat actors to disrupt essential services. Geographically, the distribution of both attack targets and the sources of attack traffic highlights key hotspots. In terms of targeted countries, Saudi Arabia led the list with 31.21% of all attacks, followed by Brazil at 21.49% and the United States at 19.23%. This data suggests that geopolitical tensions and regional conflicts continue to influence cyber attack patterns. On the source side, the United States was responsible for generating 37.86% of the observed attack traffic, followed by China at 15.29% and Russia at 11.26%. It is important to note that, due to the possibility of IP spoofing, these figures may not fully capture the true origin of all attack traffic; however, they do provide a useful overview of current trends.
The Benefit of DDoS Protection to Your Company
Despite the overwhelming volume and complexity of DDoS attacks in 2024, the proactive measures employed by Vercara UltraDDoS Protect delivered tangible benefits to organizations around the world. The system’s ability to detect and mitigate attacks swiftly resulted in the prevention of significant downtime—over 121,791 hours saved. This reliability is critical for organizations that depend on constant uptime to support customer interactions and maintain revenue streams. In addition to preventing downtime, the advanced mitigation techniques implemented by UltraDDoS Protect provide a layer of security that adapts to both large-scale assaults and more subtle, micro-targeted attacks. This dynamic defense approach means that even as threat actors change their tactics by employing methods such as carpet bombing or multi-vector attacks, organizations remain shielded from disruption. The result is a measurable improvement in network performance and resilience, as traffic is intelligently routed away from congested or under-attack segments of the network. Ensuring that resources remain available and operational translates into significant cost savings and a better user experience for customers.
Check out 6 Things to Consider When Evaluating Your DDoS Protection to discover how UltraDDoS protect can benefit your company.
How Vercara DDoS Protection Defends Against DDoS Attacks
Vercara DDoS Protection stands at the forefront of cyber defense by offering a solution that is both comprehensive and adaptive. In an era where DDoS threats are growing in volume and complexity, Vercara UltraDDoS Protect leverages state-of-the-art detection methods and real-time traffic analysis to safeguard mission-critical applications and online assets. With 24/7/365 monitoring and an extensive suite of mitigation techniques, Vercara not only prevents downtime but also provides organizations with the confidence to operate in an increasingly hostile cyber landscape. Whether facing record-breaking attacks measured in terabits per second or numerous smaller-scale assaults designed to evade detection, Vercara DDoS Protection ensures that your digital infrastructure remains secure, reliable, and always available for your customers. By continuously evolving its technology and staying ahead of emerging attack trends, Vercara reinforces its commitment to defending organizations against the relentless tide of DDoS threats. In 2024, the success of UltraDDoS Protect in mitigating over 270,000 attacks underscores the importance of a robust defense strategy that combines advanced analytics with proactive monitoring. As digital threats continue to grow in sophistication, Vercara remains dedicated to providing best-in-class protection that not only meets today’s challenges but is also prepared for the future.
