Massive DDoS attacks reach record levels as botnets make them cheaper to launch

Nineteeen distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks exceeded 100 Gbps during the first three months of the year, a new record and almost four times more than in the previous quarter, according to researchers from Akamai.

Even more concerning is that these mega attacks, which few companies can withstand on their own, were launched using so-called booter or stresser botnets that are common and cheap to rent. This means that more criminals can now afford to launch such crippling attacks.

"In the past, very few attacks generated with booter/stresser tools exceeded the 100 Gbps mark," researchers from Akamai said in the company's State of the Internet security report for the first quarter of 2016 that was released Tuesday.

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