Chinese company hit by mega-DDoS attack

China - or attackers using it - appears to be the major source of attacks with 55 percent emanating from the country with the majority of botnets located in the country too. Prolexic expects large DDoS attacks to emanate from China for some time to come.

The most popular DDoS types were those using PPS SYN and ICMP floods while a year ago it was GET floods. Some industries are more at risk than others, which might hint at an industrial motive behind some of what is going on - top targets including gaming, gambling, hospitality and shipping with attacks now lasting 1.2 days on average.

A year ago, Prolexic publicised a Philadelphia-based perfume company it had helped defend from a DDoS in the run up to Christmas 2009.