Kaspersky says number of global DDoS attacks jumps 80% in Jan–Mar

MOSCOW, May 8 (PRIME) -- The number of DDoS attacks in the world rocketed by 80% on the year and doubled on the quarter in January–March amid the coronavirus, duration of the attacks also increased, Russian anti-virus software maker Kaspersky said late Thursday in a research.

“Since the beginning of 2020 life has almost fully switched to the Web due to the COVID-19 pandemic: people all over the world now work, study, shop, and entertain online. This was reflected in the targets of DDoS attacks: the websites of medical institutions, delivery services, games and education platforms,” the research read.

Perpetrators tried to disrupt work of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the middle of March, Kaspersky said, adding that a large French clinics chain, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, fell victim to the hackers.

Food delivery services Lieferando in Germany and Thuisbezorgd in the Netherlands, as well as online education platform Mebis in Germany also faced DDoS attacks, Kaspersky said.

It does not expect the attacks to decline in future since many firms are switching to remote work and targets of the attacks are changing.

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