Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise, according to DDoS protection service provider Prolexic Technologies. The firm’s Q1 2013 DDoS report shows that average attack bandwidth totaled 48.25 Gbps in the first quarter, a 718 percent increase over last quarter. Also, the average packet-per-second rate reached 32.4 million. These startling metrics are just two of many contained in the company's Quarterly Global DDoS Attack Report.

"Average packet-per-second rate and average bit rate spiked in the first quarter and both are growing at a fast clip," said Stuart Scholly, president at Prolexic. "When you have average – not peak – rates in excess of 45 Gbps and 30 million packets-per-second, even the largest enterprises, carriers, and quite frankly most mitigation providers, are going to face significant challenges," he added.

Findings indicate that early last year, a different type of DDoS attacker emerged: one with considerable botnet resources, but also an intimate understanding of how the Internet routing topology works. As a result, Prolexic detected a clear shift to high packet-per-second DDoS attacks specifically designed to overwhelm infrastructure elements such as routers. Failure of these devices often causes collateral damage, typically taking thousands of customer websites offline.

According to Scholly, it's a classic change up. He thinks that everyone has been focused on bandwidth and gigabits per second, but it is the packet rate that is causing the most damage and presenting the biggest challenge. “These packet rates are above the thresholds of all but the most expensive routers and line cards and we are seeing networks buckle as a result," noted Scholly.

The global DDoS attack report indicates that the total number of infrastructure attacks have risen 3.65 percent as compared to the last quarter. However, when compared to Q1 2012, the total number of infrastructure attacks are up nearly 26.75 percent.