Russian organizations were hit with web and DDoS attacks last year in an attempt to sabotage operations, deface websites and “cause panic,” according to the country’s largest internet service provider (ISP).
In a new report, Rostelecom says 2022 will see “record-breaking DDoS attacks in terms of power and duration.” He added that the most powerful attack was 760Gb/s, nearly double the top attacks in 2021.
The longest DDoS lasted 2000 hours, or about 3 months.
The ISP said it analyzed data from nearly 600 companies in industries such as telecoms, retail, finance and the public sector, recording a total of 21.5 million web attacks.
The majority of these (79%) were DDoS, but exploitation of vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, path traversal, local file inclusion, and cross-site scripting accounted for a further 11%. OS command injection attacks accounted for another 10%.
Rostelecom says many of these bugs allow hackers to take complete control of the affected system and potentially steal user data.
Most DDoS attacks used “carpet bombing” tactics, targeting multiple IP addresses of one organization in a short period of time, ISPs said. But after a spike in attacks in his first two quarters after the invasion of Ukraine, attacks appear to have become more targeted and sophisticated.
“Websites of Russian companies have become an important target for hackers. and caused public panic,” said Rostelecom.
“Hacktivists took advantage of defacement by posting provocative content on popular websites.”
Both sides have used DDoS attacks to gain strategic advantage, but it fits Russia’s story to portray itself as a victim.
Ukraine’s efforts are bolstered by a worldwide volunteer “IT army” coordinated via the Telegram channel. Meanwhile, Russian online attacks also saw targets of countries allied to Ukraine attacked by hacktivist outfits loyal to the Kremlin.
This included a massive DDoS campaign against US airports by the prolific Killnet group.
Russian organizations are not unharmed either. Among the organizations that documented large-scale DDoS attacks included his VTB of the country’s second largest bank and a key state alcohol distribution portal.
