DDoS Attacks increased 174%
in Asia Pacific
South Korea Attacked the Most
In the second quarter of 2024, DDoS attacks in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 174% year-over-year, according to StormWall’s Q2 report.
StormWall analyzed DDoS attacks against the company’s customers in APAC in Q2 2024 and shared its findings.
Hackers hit South Korea particularly hard, StormWall experts say, with more DDoS attacks than any other country in the region — 26% of malicious traffic was recorded in South Korea.
This correlates with South Korea’s legislative elections on April 10, 2024.
Historically, India and China have been among the most attacked countries in the region. That’s because DDoS actors used to focus on large economies, says StormWall — that’s where the most money-making opportunities are.
The fact that we’re now seeing a reversal of this trend shows that the majority of DDoS attacks are politically motivated — launched by activists or APTs that are highly organized and capable.
A breakdown by country shows that:
- South Korea had the most attacks (26%), followed by
- India (18%) and
- North Korea (14%) with
- DDoS activity increasing around local elections.
China (12%) and Japan (9%) ranked fourth and fifth respectively. Surprisingly, Japan saw a significant increase in attacks, rising from 2% in Q1 to 9% in Q2, coinciding with the country hosting the G7 summit in May.
Sectors hit by attacks
- Among sectors, government websites were the hardest hit, accounting for 27% of attacks and experiencing a 116% year-on-year increase in DDoS traffic.
- Entertainment followed with 18% of attacks and a 134% year-on-year increase, the highest growth among all sectors.
- The telecommunications sector saw 16% of attacks, largely due to DNS-based attacks targeting the industry’s infrastructure.
Technically, attackers focused on direct-path attacks against government agencies and law enforcement infrastructure.
Botnets
Botnets increased dramatically in size, tripling from 6,000 devices in Q2 2023 to 18,000 in Q2 2024.
This growth allowed hackers to launch larger DDoS attacks, with the largest incident mitigated by StormWall peaking at 1.5 Tbit/s, targeting a client in South Korea.
Q2 2024 DDoS Cyber Attacks in Asia Pacific in Q2 2024 (pdf link)
Downloads & information
- Download: The State of DDoS Attacks in APAC in Q2 2024 (pdf)
StormWall online
