US servers hit by 175,000 DDoS attacks in March, four times as many as Chinese targets, report says
- Huge difference in numbers likely due to Beijing’s tight controls on cyberspace, VPN provider says
- DDoS attacks seek to overwhelm servers by bombarding them with fraudulent requests until they crash
American targets were hit more than 175,000 times in the month, making the US the most attacked country in the world. China suffered 45,000 attacks, placing it fourth on the list, according to figures from virtual private network (VPN) provider Atlas.
DDoS attacks are designed to crash internet servers by bombarding, and eventually overwhelming, them with vast numbers of requests. In most cases, hackers commandeer multiple online devices from which to send the fraudulent requests to the servers.
While DDoS attacks do not directly sabotage or steal information from a target – their aim is to disrupt traffic and prevent genuine users from gaining access – they can sometimes be used to disguise or distract attention away from more serious cybercrimes.
Michael Gazeley, managing director and co-founder of internet security service company Network Box Corporation, said the profile of DDoS attackers and their motives varied, from individuals and organisations motivated by money or revenge, to groups with religious or political goals.
He said that looking at the figures for Thursday alone, his company observed similar results to those found in the Atlas report, with the US suffering more DDoS attacks than any other country.