Record DDoS Attacks Focus on Online Gambling Industry

Cloudflare recently released its DDoS threat report for Q3 2023. The report shows a 65% increase in total attack traffic over the last quarter. Of that traffic, gaming and gambling companies had the most attack traffic. Up until this point, the cryptocurrency industry held that distinction.

These attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with botnets showing a greater increase in attacks. As attacks continue to ramp up, online casinos may be forced to increase security to protect their players.

65% Increase in Attack Traffic Globally Compared to Last Quarter

Cloudflare released some startling data on 26 October as part of its DDoS threat report for Q3 2023. According to the report, the company saw a 65% increase in HTTP DDoS attack traffic compared to Q2. The company states that it faced “one of the most sophisticated and persistent DDoS attack campaigns in recorded history.”

Of those attacks, 89 exceeded 100 million requests per second (rps). The largest had a peak of 201 million rps. The previous record was 71 million rps which was set back in February. Of the industries attacked, Gaming and Gambling companies had the highest volume of attacks. This put the iGaming industry above the cryptocurrency industry as the most attacked.

Of course, those numbers are somewhat relative. The number of total attacks on the iGaming industry sits around 5.41% of all attack traffic. However, due to the amount of traffic on gaming and online gambling sites, the industry does not even rank in the top 10 for total penetration.

If you look at the percentages of attacks based on the industry traffic,  the Mining & Metals and the Non-Profit industries have the highest percentages of attacks at 17.46 and 17.41% respectively. Crypto has 7.93% of attack traffic, slightly below the United States government at 9.49%.

For Oceania, which includes Australia, the Telecommunications industry had the highest percentage of DDoS attacks. Crypto was second, with Computer Science companies coming in third.

Attacks Are Becoming More Sophisticated

The Cloudflare report points to data that reveals that attacks are becoming more sophisticated. The report spoke about hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks that use virtual machines to conduct the attacks. These virtual machines exploit HTTP/2 and leverage cloud computing to significantly increase the force behind the attack.

It’s estimated that botnet nodes can generate up to 5,000x the force of past nodes. This helps to explain how that recent attacks crushed the previous rps record. One concerning statistic is that these new botnet attacks had a high focus on gaming and gambling websites. Gaming websites were second only behind Cloudflare’s infrastructure. Gambling & Casino sites were fourth. Crypto was a distant seventh.

What Will This Mean for Online Casinos?

If anything, this new report should serve as a reminder to online gambling companies that they need to stay up to date with the latest security software. Cloudflare helps to mitigate many of the most sophisticated attacks, but casinos need to stay diligent to ensure they are staying up to date technologically.

It would be wise for companies to take the time to review their current security technologies and ensure they can withstand a potential DDoS attack. It’s not a matter of if sites will be attacked. It is just a matter of when.

This also reinforces our insistence that you only gamble at online casinos that are licensed and certified. Licensed online casinos must have the latest security software to help mitigate potential DDoS attacks, protecting players from hackers and identity thieves. As these attacks become increasingly sophisticated, it will be crucial that you select casinos that can block these attacks and protect their players.