There is a lot of money to be made by launching DDOS attacks. What was once angry teenage gamers attacking each other is now a common tool used by hackers, criminals, and political organizations. And the DDOS attacks are getting bigger. In 2017, 42% of attacks exceeded 50Gbps. This is up from two years ago when only 10% of attacks passed the 50Gbps threshold. Two attacks this year have even passed the 1Tbps mark.

As more Internet of Things (IoT) devices are purchased by consumers and placed on networks, hackers have access to more seldom-updated devices that can be used in massive bot networks to launch the biggest attacks we’ve seen. Add to that the rise of difficult-to-trace crypto currency like Bitcoin and services have sprung up that allow DDOS attacks to be purchased on-demand.

Is there an end in site for DDOS attacks? Likely not for a while. But what you can do is ensure that your site or business are protected from DDOS so that you are immune to the nefarious bad actors who perpetrate the attacks. The attacks are getting larger, make sure you defense against DDOS attacks is getting larger as well.