The Age of DDoScovery: An Empirical Comparison of Industry and Academic DDoS Assessments
Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/report › Conference contribution › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Motivated by the impressive but diffuse scope of DDoS research and reporting, we undertake a multistakeholder (joint industry-academic) analysis to seek convergence across the best available macroscopic views of the relative trends in two dominant classes of attacks -- direct-path attacks and reflection-amplification attacks. We first analyze 24 industry reports to extract trends and (in)consistencies across observations by commercial stakeholders in 2022. We then analyze nine data sets spanning industry and academic sources, across four years (2019-2023), to find and explain discrepancies based on data sources, vantage points, methods, and parameters. Our method includes a new approach: we share an aggregated list of DDoS targets with industry players who return the results of joining this list with their proprietary data sources to reveal gaps in visibility of the academic data sources. We use academic data sources to explore an industry-reported relative drop in spoofed reflection-amplification attacks in 2021-2022. Our study illustrates the value, but also the challenge, in independent validation of security-related properties of Internet infrastructure. Finally, we reflect on opportunities to facilitate greater common understanding of the DDoS landscape. We hope our results inform not only future academic and industry pursuits but also emerging policy efforts to reduce systemic Internet security vulnerabilities.
Details
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) |
Publisher | ACM New York, NY, USA |
Publication status | Accepted/In press - Aug 2024 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Conference
Title | ACM Internet Measurement Conference 2024 |
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Abbreviated title | ACM IMC 2024 |
Conference number | 24 |
Duration | 4 - 6 November 2024 |
Website | |
Degree of recognition | International event |
Location | ESPACIO Fundación Telefónica |
City | Madrid |
Country | Spain |