Akamai Says Internet Faster and DDoS Attacks Increasing

The Internet is getting faster -- and faster. And despite a slight decrease in DDoS attacks in the third quarter of 2013, there were more DDoS attacks reported through Q3 2013 than in all of 2012. So says Akamai Technologies' latest State of the Internet Report, which is based on its Intelligent Platform. The report offers stats like network connectivity, connection speeds, attack traffic, and broadband adoption and availability.

Simply stated, the global average connection speed continued its upward trend in the third quarter of 2013, climbing 10 percent over the previous quarter to 3.6 Mbps. Average connection speeds also saw a 29 percent year-over-year increase, with all of the top 10 countries and regions climbing 27 percent or more. The global average peak connection speed grew 13 percent over the third quarter of 2012. Global broadband adoption improved 5.8 percent over the quarter to reach 53 percent.

"In the third quarter of 2013, we observed that long-term growth in average and average peak connection speeds remained strong, as did growth in global broadband and high broadband adoption rates,EU said David Belson, the report's editor. EUWe believe these trends point to continued improvement in the quality and performance of Internet connectivity in countries around the world.EU

Attack Traffic Rising

Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 185 unique countries and regions during the third quarter of 2013. ThatEUs up 10 over the previous quarter. China, which originated 35 percent of observed attacks, returned to the top spot this quarter after having been unseated by Indonesia in the second quarter.

Indonesia, meanwhile, dropped back to second place after originating 20 percent of observed attacks -- slightly more than half of the volume seen in the second quarter. The United States remained in third place as it originated 11 percent of observed attacks during the third quarter,...