Thirdquarter distributed denial of service activity increased by 53%compared to Q2, according to Verisign. The Reston, Va.,cybersecurity firm also reported its Q3 2015 DDoS Trends Reportnumbers were the highest quarterly levels in the last twoyears.

For the fourth quarter in a row, the IT Services/Cloud/SaaSindustry was most frequently targeted by DDoS attacks, representing29% of mitigation activity in Q3. Media and Entertainment closelyfollowed with 26% of mitigations. The Financial and Payments sectorremained a heavily-targeted industry, representing 15% of allVerisign mitigations.

DDoS attacks produce damaging consequences, including loweredcustomer confidence and lost revenue.

Additional notable Verisign observations from Q3 2015 included:The average attack size increased to 7.03 Gbps, 27% higher than Q22015; 59% of attacks peaked at more than 1 Gbps; and, 20% ofattacks were greater than 10 Gbps.

Verisign believed that this distribution of attack size was aninsightful metric for enterprises as they consider adoption of anon-premise, cloud or hybrid DDoS protection approach.

The size distribution suggested that, according to the report,purely based on size considerations, an on-premise DDoS appliancewith a 1 Gbps capacity would be ineffective in at least 59% of theattacks, while a 10 Gbps appliance might be ineffective in handling20%.

“Hence, a cloud or a hybrid approach to DDoS protection isrecommended,” Verisign said in the report.

Verisign also noted a peak volumetric DDoS attack of 60 Gbps and12 million packets per second for User Datagram Protocol floods,and 34 Gbps/30 Mpps for Transmission Control Protocol floods in thethird quarter.

The most common attacks mitigated were Network Time Protocol,Domain Name System and Simple Service Discovery Protocol UDPfloods, which collectively accounted for approximately 65% of Q3attacks.

Another significant disclosure in the reportwas operating systems once thought to be more secure againstmalware and vulnerabilities, like Linux, Mac OS X and iOS, areincreasingly the target of bot herders and malware authors forcybercrime and hacktivist activities.

The increasing number of data breaches and their consequencescould soon hinder the growth of cloud-based mobile apps, accordingto a recent survey from the Israel-based security firm Radware. Thesurvey revealed 87% of consumers believe cloud-based apps arevulnerable and 54% would stop using them if hacked.

Earlier this week, the Federal Financial InstitutionsExamination Council issued a statement, “Cyber Attacks Involving Extortion,” alertingfinancial institutions of the increasing frequency and severity ofthis particular breed of cyber attacks.

Cybercriminals and activists used a variety of strategies,including ransomware, distributeddenial of service, and theft of sensitive business and customerinformation to extort payment or other concessions from victims,according to the alert. In some cases, these attacks hadsignificant effects on businesses' access to data and ability toprovide services. Some businesses suffered serious damage throughthe release of sensitive information.

Last July, the Internet Crime Complaint Center issued an alertregarding an increasing number of complaints from businesses hit byDDoS extortion campaigns via email. The FBI said it suspectsmultiple individuals were involved in these ransom plots. In atypical extortion campaign, the targeted business receives an emailthreatening a DDoS attack on the company's website unless it pays aransom. Ransoms, usually demanded in Bitcoin currency, vary inprice.