Australia receives 5% of the world’s denial-of-service attacks, putting it ahead of Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Israel, France and Spain, cyber expert Imperva says.

Financial services is the top target by industry, representing 24% of all attacks. 

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a cybercrime in which servers are flooded with internet traffic to block real users’ access.

The volume and sophistication of DDoS attacks are on the rise, fueled by automation and easy access to tools, allowing individuals with limited technical expertise to launch them. 

The US received 48% of such attacks from January to June, while the UK and Brazil attracted just over 6% each. 

Imperva, which mitigated 111% more DDoS incidents in the first half than a year earlier, says attack methods have become more advanced, and they are launched from multiple connected devices, making them more difficult to tackle.

“These large-scale DDoS attacks often involve botnets, which are networks of compromised devices remotely controlled. As AI lowers the barrier for cyber attackers, investing in AI-driven defence mechanisms becomes increasingly important.”

Imperva is owned by French technology group Thales. 

See the report here.