The Internet of Things outbreak provides more attack sources for DDoS? Is it urgent to upgrade DDOS protection?

Now the importance of DDOS protection cannot be ignored. According to forecasts, by 2020, the total number of IoT devices will reach 20.4 billion units. At the same time, DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks will also rise sharply. It is estimated that by 2020, the number of DDOS attacks exceeding 1 gigabit per second will soar to 3.1 million.
Although correlation is not equal to causality, in this case, the connection between the two is obvious. There is evidence that IoT devices are a common target in large-scale DDOS attacks, so the relationship between the two is not just a coincidence. Earlier this year, relevant agencies issued a report on their own attack status, which further revealed the connection between IoT devices and destructive DDoS attacks. These findings reveal the role played by the Internet of Things as one of the biggest cybersecurity threats in the current era.
It is not surprising that the Internet of Things continues to grow at an alarming rate: A 2018 report found that the total market for the Internet of Things will reach $520 billion in 2021, more than twice the amount spent in 2017. According to the DDoS Attack Status Report, this means a growth rate of 127 connected devices per second, and this number will undoubtedly continue to grow in the next few years.
Unfortunately, the Internet of Things outbreak also provides an excellent opportunity for attackers to invade vulnerable connected devices, especially to build a botnet (a network of malware-infected connected devices that can be used to send a large number of requests to the target server) . As discovered by Eurecom (French Communication Systems Engineering School and Research Center), hackers have developed brand-new malware specifically targeting IoT devices. Knowing this, it is obvious that the era of DDOS attacks based on the Internet of Things has arrived. The launch of some top-tier IoT malware has reached the level of global notoriety. Take the Mirai malware as an example, which has caused major websites such as Reddit and Github to yield.
In a report, it was discovered that five top IoT malware belonged to the mirai family, and the sixth belonged to the gafgyt/bashlite family. Most malicious IoT projects are hosted in the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. Nowadays, more and more DDOS attacks are bad enough, but with the widespread adoption of 5G, the situation will get worse.
This is because the implementation of 5G will usher in an era of unprecedented data speed and significantly reduced latency, which means that DDoS protection must mitigate attacks within seconds, not minutes. It is estimated that by 2024, the number of IoT devices with mobile network connections will reach 4.1 billion. It is clear that fragile 5G connected IoT devices will pose a serious threat to global organizations.
If left unchecked, the scale of 5G connected IoT DDoS attacks may dwarf even today's largest attacks. In order to respond to next-generation 5G DDOS attacks, organizations must implement advanced DDOS protection threat intelligence that combines real-time threat detection and automatic signature extraction. Only in this way can the organization effectively defend against huge and ultra-fast DDOS attacks in the future.
As the current report shows, as the 5G and IoT markets develop, we will begin to see an increase in major DDOS attacks. This is a double-edged sword because the risks of using the Internet of Things are high, but there are many benefits. If the organization can prepare for the future now, then the security team can prepare for DDOS protection before the next large-scale DDOS threat arrives.
And if the warnings in these reports are ignored and the corresponding DDoS protection measures are not taken, then DDoS attacks will be allowed to find the perfect partner in the Internet of Things.
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