Microsoft fends off a 2.4 Tbps DDoS attack classed as the second-largest in history

A customer, who is based in Europe, was hit with a DDoS event during the last week of August that peaked up to 2.4 Tbps. However, Microsoft has reported that the attack was successfully defeated by the Azure Protection system. Azure alleviated the effects of the attack on the customer through the implementation of Azure’s DDoS mitigation. According to the tech giant, the mitigation service works to quickly detect and mitigate attacks by looking out for large deviations in network traffic. When these large differences occur, mitigation is automatically applied to prevent damage.

According to Microsoft, the attack that took place in August came from 70,000 devices in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States. The attack was an ‘UDP reflection’ that occurred in waves lasting for approximately 10 minutes with waves peaking at 2.4 Tbps, 0.55 Tbps and 1.7 Tbps, respectively. However, Azure managed to mitigate the attack traffic at the country of origin; and thus, the customer was protected as the traffic did not reach Europe.

The tech company claimed that the global absorption and advanced mitigation capabilities of Azure protected its clients against the effects of the DDoS attack or any resulting downtime. Furthermore, they continue to propose that if any organisations connect to the internet or if clients operate their own data center, they could experience substantial expenses due to the damage from DDoS events. Moreover, cloud users must now be especially vigilant during the COVID-19 pandemic as more organisations transition into online operations.

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