Verisign today released its Q1 2016 DDoS Trends Report, which provides a unique view into online distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack trends from mitigations enacted on behalf of customers of Verisign DDoS Protection Services and research conducted by Verisign iDefense Security Intelligence Services.

Every industry is at risk as DDoS attacks continue to increase in size, frequency and sophistication. The most notable observation last quarter is the increase in DDoS attack activity, which was at its highest since the inception of Verisign’s DDoS Trends Report in Q1 2014. Comparing year-over-year attack activity, Verisign mitigated 111 percent more attacks in Q1 2016 than in Q1 2015.

Key Trends and Observations

•  Average attack size observed by Verisign continues to be high at 19.37 Gbps, a 182 percent increase compared to Q4 2015.

•  IT Services/Cloud/SaaS, representing 32 percent of mitigation activity in Q1 2016, remains the most frequently targeted industry for the sixth consecutive quarter, closely followed by Financial, representing 27 percent of all mitigations.

•  User Datagram Protocol (UDP) flood attacks continue to dominate, accounting for approximately 62 percent of attacks in Q1 2016.

•  Sixty-four percent of the DDoS attacks mitigated by Verisign in Q1 2016 employed more than one attack type.

Public Sector Organizations Targeted by Hacktivist DDoS Attacks

Finally, this quarter’s feature article focuses on the increase of hacktivist DDoS attacks in the Public Sector, especially with the rise in the availability and affordability of DDoS-for-hire services. Actors have flooded the networks of national government departments, academic institutions and local law enforcement websites with DDoS attacks with the intent of rendering them inaccessible—and using social media to broadcast their activity.

For more DDoS trends in Q1 2016, download the full report, and be sure to check back in a few months when we release our Q2 2016 DDoS Trends Report.