2021 Comcast Business DDoS Threat Report

Key Takeaways from this Report

2021 was another record year for global DDoS attacks. At 9.84 million, the number was lower than the 10.1 million attacks in 2020 but still represented a 14 percent increase over the 2019 numbers.

A few factors account for the slight decrease in global attacks from 2020 to 2021. First, 2020 was a full lockdown year where the world operated remotely, giving threat actors a unique landscape against which to launch unprecedented numbers of DDoS attacks. Second, cryptocurrency had an incredible year in 2021, creating a lucrative opportunity for threat actors to redirect their botnet resources, the ones typically used in DDoS attacks, to crypto mining activities.

The number of DDoS attacks is likely much higher than reported, as some corporations have extensive internal resources to withstand attacks without noticeable disruptions and typically don’t publicly report the total number of attacks against their networks, applications, and infrastructure.

About this report

The 2021 Comcast Business DDoS threat report focuses on multi-vector attacks that target Layers 3, 4, and 7 simultaneously. Although a small percentage of the overall attacks experienced by our customers, we believe the sophistication and potential damage caused by these attacks warrants a deeper look.

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