Cloudflare reported that a 2.5 Tbps DDoS attack hit players on Minecraft server Wynncraft, amid a general increase in such attacks globally.
Wynncraft, a popular Minecraft server, was targeted by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack recently – one that internet infrastructure company Cloudflare said was the largest of its kind it has ever seen.
The attack, launched by a Mirai botnet variant, had a bit rate of 2.5 Tbps. A higher bit rate increases the speed and scale of DDoS attacks, which attempt to make online services unavailable by overwhelming them with high volumes of data from multiple sources.
According to Bleeping Computer, a DDoS attack this large last occurred in 2017, in a campaign that lasted for six months from a nation-state actor, disclosed by Google in 2020.
Cloudflare revealed the latest Minecraft attack as part of its threat report for the third quarter of 2022. Overall, there has been an increase in DDoS attacks over last year, especially in attacks that are generated by the Mirai botnet and its variants.
The gaming industry has been the biggest target of recent DDoS attacks, their volume inflated by a 405pc increase in Mirai-related attacks compared to the previous quarter.
In June, Cloudflare said it was able to detect and mitigate a record-breaking DDoS attack which generated more than 212m requests from more than 1,500 networks in less than 30 seconds.
Its latest report suggests that HTTP DDoS attacks have risen 111pc year-on-year. However, there has been a 10pc over the previous quarter. The two most targeted countries were Taiwan, where DDoS attacks increased by 200pc, and Japan, where there was a 105pc increase.
In terms of source countries for DDoS attacks, China led the way. This was followed by India, the US and Brazil. Germany, which came in just after Brazil, was the largest source of DDoS attacks of any European country.
There was a quarterly drop in DDoS attack traffic originating in Ukrainian and Russian IP addresses, even though they have increased year-on-year.
“Over the years, it has become easier, cheaper, and more accessible for attackers and attackers-for-hire to launch DDoS attacks,” said Cloudfalre researcher Omer Yoachimik.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
