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DNS amplification types of DDoS attacks doubled in the first quarter of 2018 over last quarter, and spiked nearly 700 percent year-over-year, according to Nexusguard.
Nexusguard’s Q1 2018 Threat Report, which analyzes thousands of global cyber attacks, reported that 55 of the attacks were due to exploited Memcached servers. The vulnerable servers pose a significant new risk if not properly configured, similar to exposed servers enabled by DNSSEC, a major threat in Q4. Left unchecked, the poor configurations can cause the amplified traffic to bring about the highest multiplying effect ever.
Similar to vulnerable IoT devices deployed with little or no security, exposed Memcached servers can give cyber criminals openings to mount attacks amplified by a factor of 51,000 times, making them the most efficient attack tool to date.
China and the U.S. dominated as the top two sources of DDoS attacks in Q1, contributing 15.2 percent and 14.2 percent of the botnets, respectively. Vietnam climbed to third place, contributing more than seven percent of the global attacks.
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