H1 2024 Global Threat Analysis
Executive Summary

The first half of 2024 witnessed unprecedented growth in the frequency and intensity of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, driven by global geopolitical tensions and the democratization of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies through increasingly powerful and publicly available large language models (LLM) adopted by threat actors. Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, event-driven attacks spurred by the EU elections, as well as high-profile events like the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, the UEFA 2024 in Germany and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, have all contributed to this surge.

H1 Threat Report

Web DDoS Attack Activity

The frequency and intensity of the new generation of HTTPS floods have increased dramatically, and the sophistication introduced by attackers is growing quickly and viciously. In the first half of 2024, Web DDoS attacks saw a significant increase in frequency and intensity. A good portion of the activity can be attributed to hacktivists motivated by political tensions and new attack vectors such as HTTP/2 Rapid Reset and Continuation floods that drove these attacks to new heights in intensity and duration.

Web DDoS Attacks per Quarter

Web DDoS Attack Activity
In Q1 2024, the number of mitigated Web DDoS attacks increased by 137% compared to Q4 2023. In Q2 2024, this number increased again by 85%.

The majority of Web DDoS attacks targeted organizations in the EMEA region, influenced by geopolitical conflicts and highly visible events like the EU parliament elections, Euro 2024 in Germany and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Attack traffic patterns targeting organizations in our cloud demonstrated a shift to larger, more intense and more impactful Web DDoS attacks in 2024.

Application-layer DNS DDoS Attack Activity

The number of malicious DNS flood queries in the first six months of 2024 has already increased by 76% compared to the total number of queries observed during the whole year in 2023.

DNS Queries per Year

Application-layer DNS DDoS Attack Activity

Application-layer DNS DDoS attack activity tripled between 2022 and 2023 and quadrupled between H1 2023 and H1 2024. Finance was the most targeted industry, representing 52% of the total DNS query flood attack activity. Technology, telecom, healthcare, and research and education were other notable industries.

Network-Layer DDoS Attack Activity

Network-layer DDoS attacks, which actually span L3 and L4, also exhibited a rising trend in H1 2024.

Number of Attacks (normalized)

Network-Layer DDoS Attack Activity

The average network-layer attack volume per organization per month grew by 127% between 2023 and 2024. The network-layer volume blocked per organization in H1 2024 was 14% higher compared to the network-layer volume in all of 2023.

DDoS Volume (normalized)

Network-Layer DDoS Attack Activity

Finance organizations experienced the highest network-layer attack activity, followed by healthcare, technology, government, transportation and logistics, and gaming.

Most Attacked Industries in 2024 H1

Network-Layer DDoS Attack Activity

Hacktivist DDoS Attack Activity

The hacktivist landscape remained dynamic with constant DDoS activity. Hacktivist-driven DDoS attacks hovered between 1,000 to 1,200 claimed attacks per month in 2024 with Ukraine being the most targeted country.

Claimed DDoS Attacks per Month

Hacktivist DDoS Attack Activity

Pro-Russia hacktivist group NoName057(16) remained the most active threat actor. The Cyber Army of Russia Reborn, Anonymous Sudan, Mysterious Team, Executor DDoS and Team Insane PK have been the most active threat actors since January 2023, while 62IX, Sylhet Gang, HackNet and RipperSec were among the most notable hacktivist groups in the first half of 2024 alone.

In South Asia, India observed many claimed attacks from Indonesian and Bangladeshi hacktivists with Anonymous Susukan, Ketapang Grey Hat Team and Sylhet Gang claiming the most attacks. Pakistan was also one of the most frequently attacked countries, mostly by Indian hacktivists Team NWH, Dark Cyber Warrior, Kingsman, Hacktivist Vanguard and Team Network Nine.

The United States became an important target for DDoS-as-a-service providers that like to leverage big, highly visible organizations as a target for their proof-of-capability advertisements. The Telegram groups Channel DDoS v2, ZeusAPI Services and Krypton Networks claimed the most attacks targeting the United States.

The top attacker collectives targeting Israel included RipperSec, 1915 Team, Sylhet Gang, Anonymous Muslims, LulzSec Indonesia, Team ARXU, StarsX Team and Dark Storm Team.

Government websites were the most targeted since January 2023.

Web Application and API Attack Activity

Web application and API attacks increased by 22% in H1 2024 compared to H2 2023. Vulnerability exploitation was the leading attack category, followed by access violations, data leaks and SQL injection attacks. North America was the most targeted region.

Malicious Web Application and API Transactions

Web Application and API Attack Activity

Bad Bot Activity

Bad bot transactions saw a significant rise with notable regional targeting. Compared to H1 2023, the number of bad bot transactions increased by 61% in 2024. North America experienced the highest bad bot activity, representing half of all transactions, followed by APAC, EMEA (20% each) and CALA (12%).

Bad Bot Transactions

Bad Bot Activity

Reasons for Concern

The escalation in attack frequency and sophistication observed in the first half of 2024 signals a critical juncture for cybersecurity strategies with heightened geopolitical tensions, the democratization of AI technologies, indications of a decelerating financial market and an upcoming pivotal election in the United States all playing a role. Our continued vigilance and proactive defense are imperative. Detailed insights into attack patterns and advanced threat actor tactics are crucial for formulating resilient cybersecurity protocols.