Akamai mitigated a record-breaking DDoS attack that peaked 900Gbps

Akamai
has
mitigated
the
largest
DDoS
(distributed
denial
of
service)
attack
ever,
which
peaked
at
900.1
gigabits
per
second.

Akamai
reported
that
on
February
23,
2023,
at
10:22
UTC,
it
mitigated
the
largest DDoS
attack ever.
The
attack
traffic
peaked
at
900.1 gigabits
per
second
and
158.2
million
packets
per
second.
The
record-breaking
DDoS
was
launched
against
a
Prolexic
customer
in
Asia-Pacific
(APAC).

“On
February
23,
2023,
at
10:22
UTC,
Akamai
mitigated
the
largest DDoS
attack ever
launched
against
a
Prolexic
customer
based
in
Asia-Pacific
(APAC),
with
attack
traffic
peaking
at
900.1 gigabits
per
second
and
158.2
million
packets
per
second.”
reads
the


post
published
by
Akamai.

The
company
pointed
out
that
the
attack
was
intense
and
short-lived,
with
most
attack
traffic
bursting
during
the
peak
minute
of
the
attack.
The
overall
attack
lasted
only
a
few
minutes.

Akamai
mitigated
the
attack
by
redirecting
the
malicious
traffic
through
its
scrubbing
network.

Most
of
the
malicious
traffic
(48%)
was
managed
by
scrubbing
centers
in
the
APAC
region,
but
the
company
claims
that
all
its
26
centers
were
loaded,
with
only
one
center
in
HKG
handling
14,6%
of
the
total
traffic.

Akamai
states
that
there
was
no
collateral
damage
thanks
to
its
defense.

The

previous
record-breaking
distributed
denial
of
service
attack
mitigated
by
Akamai
hit
a
company
customer
in
Europe
on
September
2022.
At
the
time,
the
malicious
traffic
peaked
at
704.8
Mpps
and
appeared
to
originate
from
the
same
threat
actor
behind
another
record-breaking
attack
that
Akamai blocked in
July
and
that
hit
the
same
customer.

In
January,
Microsoft


announced
that
its
Azure
DDoS
protection
platform
has
mitigated
a
record 3.47
Tbps attack
that
targeted
one
of
its
customers
with
a
packet
rate
of
340
million
packets
per
second
(pps).

The
attack
took
place
in
November
and
hit
a
customer
in
Asia,
it
originated
from
approximately
10,000
sources
and
from
multiple
countries
across
the
globe,
including
the
United
States,
China,
South
Korea,
Russia,
Thailand,
India,
Vietnam,
Iran,
Indonesia,
and
Taiwan.

The
3.47
Tbps
attack
was
the
largest
one
Microsoft
has
mitigated
to
date,
likely
the
massive
one
ever
recorded.

Follow
me
on
Twitter:


@securityaffairs
and


Facebook
and


Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs –

hacking,
distributed
denial
of
service)

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About Author

AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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