StateOfTheInternet
Latest
Hacker attacks on websites shot up 75 percent last quarter
Akamai Technologies' State of the Internet report for Q4 2013 has just arrived, and one stat stands out like a bad rash: DDoS (denial of service) attacks were up 75 percent over last quarter, and 23 percent from the year before. Most of the targets were enterprises, and Akamai said that the likelihood of a repeat hack is one in three -- a 35 percent bump over last year. Such numbers have no doubt fueled demand for services like Google's Project Shield, which shelter businesses behind massive cloud servers that can easily absorb an onslaught. As for the countries of origin? The dubious winner of that prize (by far) was China with 43 percent of all attacks, followed by the US and Canada. The latter nation saw a not-very-polite 2500 percent bump in DDoS attacks over last year -- hopefully not a trend.
European carriers and Google Fiber are leading the IPv6 charge
The advanced IPv6 standard reached the internet well over a year ago. But who's really using it? Mostly Europeans, if you ask Akamai. The content delivery firm is now tracking IPv6 adoption as of its latest State of the Internet report, and it found that European nations represented seven of the top ten countries using IPv6 in the third quarter of 2013. The US was more modest in embracing IPv6 with 4.2 percent of all traffic relying on the newer technology, while Asia was relatively slow on the uptake. Adoption varies widely from provider to provider, though. More than half of Google Fiber's traffic was based around the protocol, while more established companies like Deutsche Telekom and Time Warner Cable still leaned heavily on old-fashioned IPv4. There are a handful of other revelations in the report. Denial of service attacks dropped for the first time since the end of 2012, with China passing Indonesia to once more become the biggest source of incursions. Broadband speeds were also clearly on the way up -- Akamai notes that use of high-speed internet access (over 10Mbps) jumped 31 percent quarter-to-quarter to to hit 19 percent worldwide. These increases primarily came from South Korea, the Netherlands and other countries that already have high average internet speeds. Not that Americans can complain too much. The US mostly kept pace with a typical internet speed of 9.8Mbps, or enough to make it the eighth fastest country on Earth.
Akamai: DDoS attacks increased since Q1 2013, Indonesia marked as biggest cyberbully
The latest Akamai report on the state of the internet is out, and it looks like DDoS attacks have spiked since the last one. What's more, China's reign as the number one perpetrator was cut short by Indonesia, which almost doubled its first-quarter malicious traffic from 21 percent to 38 percent. China's traffic dropped from 34 percent to 33 percent, but combined, the two countries still comprise more than half of observed attack traffic. The US on the other hand, stays in third place even though attack traffic dropped from 8.3 percent to 6.9 percent. There is a bright side to the research, though: Global internet speeds rose at a much higher rate since the last report. High broadband (any speed greater than or equal to 10Mbps) adoption rose to 14 percent worldwide quarter over quarter, while average-connection speeds rose to 3.3Mbps from the previous 3.1Mbps. If you've been keeping tabs on mobile device traffic numbers, cellular network traffic was about even between Android Webkit and Apple's Mobile Safari, coming in at just under 38 and 34 percent respectively. In terms of raw traffic across all network types though, Cupertino's ecosystem nearly doubled Google's, at 54 percent compared to 27.6 percent respectively. You're more than welcome to check out the press release and the source for full details, but we recommend putting on a pot of coffee first -- it's a heady read. Correction: We initially reported that DDoS attacks had dropped since Q1 2013, though in fact the report shows they have increased.
Akamai: DDoS attacks tripled year-over-year in 2012, China ranks as biggest offender
Akamai's back with yet another snapshot of the state of the internet and, surprise surprise, it's reporting that DDoS attacks were up threefold last year versus 2011. That stat's just one slice of the sprawling cybersecurity picture painted by the company, which also ranks China as the foremost perpetrator of "observed attack traffic" in Q4 2012, numbering that country's share at 41 percent. To put that into better perspective, consider that the number two and three offenders -- the U.S. and Turkey, respectively -- are responsible for a shared 15 percent of that traffic, while former Cold War enemy Russia accounts for just 4.3 percent. On a continent-by-continent basis, the majority of these attacks originated in the Asia Pacific / Oceania region (about 56 percent), with North and South America accounting for 18 percent. On a much lighter note, global high-speed broadband adoption (defined as any speed equal or greater than 10Mbps) grew by 2.7 percent last quarter, with top honors going to South Korea where nearly half the population enjoys super fast internet access. For the mobile flipside, Akamai found that average global speeds hovered between 8Mbps to 345kbps down, with peak downlink speeds coming in at 44Mbps to 2.7Mbps. The bulk of mobile data requests sent to Akamai's platform saw Android's Webkit browser and Apple's Mobile Safari come in nearly neck-and-neck at 35.3 percent and 32.6 percent. Although when you expand that to overall network traffic, Safari reigns supreme with a 58.7 percent share. If you're keen to digest even more of these sobering statistics, we recommend you hit up the source for the full executive summary and even more infographics.
Akamai: Mobile data traffic doubled year-to-year in Q3, broadband adoption up
Akamai's served up its latest State of the Internet report, and data collected by Ericsson reveals some significant changes in terms of mobile internet usage. According to the firm's figures, mobile data traffic doubled between the third quarters of 2011 and 2012, growing 16 percent since Q2 2012. In terms of browser marketshare over cellular networks, Android Webkit accounted for 37.6 percent of requests, while Mobile Safari netted 35.7 percent. Opera Mini hovered a tad below 20 percent, with RIM's and Microsoft's offerings duking it out below the 10 percent mark. However, when it comes to mobile devices across all networks (read: not just using cellular data), the gap between iOS and Android devices is far wider. In that scenario, Mobile Safari took the crown with 60.1 percent of browser requests, leaving Android Webkit with only 23.1 percent. On the cyber attack front, Akamai reports that such traffic originating from China increased by 16 percent in Q3, making the country the source of roughly a third of attacks during the quarter. The number two spot was claimed by the United States with 13 percent, and Russia slid in at third place with 4.7 percent. While average broadband speeds didn't see much in the way of landslide shifts, they were up globally by 11 percent year-over-year. Worldwide adoption of broadband 10Mbps or greater grew a sizable 22 percent between the third quarters of 2011 and 2012. If you'd like to pore over the statistic-filled tome yourself, hit the source link below.
Akamai: peak internet speeds jumped 25 percent year-to-year in Q1, Germany tops the mobile world
If you thought world internet access speeds were facing a large-scale slowdown, you can stop fretting for now. Data from Akamai suggests that average speeds were just 2.6Mbps, but that was a healthy 14 percent improvement over the fall and a noticeable 25 percent better than early 2011. Average peak internet connection speeds surged just as much in the first quarter of this year: at 13.5Mbps, the average maximum was a 10 percent season-to-season boost and that same 25 percent versus a year before. The leaders remain Asian territories with that ideal mix of dense populations and high technology, culminating in Hong Kong's blazing 49.3Mbps typical downlink. Akamai attributes much of the growth in peak speeds to an explosion in "high broadband" connections, where 10Mbps is the minimum -- countries like Denmark, Finland, South Korea, Switzerland and the US roughly doubled their adoption of extra-fast access in the past year. Before cheering too loudly, we'd point out that mobile speeds are still trudging along despite HSPA+ and LTE making their presences felt. The most consistent speed came from an unnamed German carrier, which neared 6Mbps; the best regular American rate was 2.5Mbps, which underscores how far even some of the most developed countries have to go. There's also a clear gap in regular landline broadband quality if we go by the US' own National Broadband Plan standards. Just 60 percent of US broadband is over the 4Mbps mark, putting the US at 14th in the global ranks. We're hoping that projects like Google Fiber can raise expectations for everyone, but you can hit the source shortly to get Akamai's full study.
Internet speeds drop around the world according to Akamai, adoption rate up
Here's an odd one: average connection speeds around the globe dropped 14 percent to just 2.3 Mbps during the last quarter of 2011. The drop off remains something of a mystery since the data used to calculate that result doesn't include mobile broadband (so its increased adoption can't be dragging down the whole) and Akamai offers no explanation. Still, it's not time to start panicking, just yet. Even though speeds in the US dropped 5.3 percent from the previous quarter, average connection rates are still up significantly over the previous year. Otherwise, things largely stayed the same. Global broadband adoption was steady at 66 percent and the US continued to trail its friends across the Pacific (by a lot) in the race for the fastest Internet connections. Interestingly, while the number of broadband connections stayed consistent the number of narrowband lines (under 256 Kbps) declined dramatically. Yet, the percentage of the world's population connected to the web managed to increase 2.1 percent quarter over quarter -- and 13 percent for the year. So, while it may seem that the internet had a temporary set back in Q4 of 2011, the long term trends look good. The number of people online is increasing, the average speeds being pulled down by those people is climbing and the number of folks stuck in the dial up era is dropping. To get a copy of the full report hit up the source.
Akamai sees internet speeds climb, Asia still dominates broadband arms race
Akamai's annual State of the Internet report is loaded with all sorts of interesting, if not terribly surprising, tidbits about both broad and narrowband connections around the globe. The big news? The world-wide average connection speed has jumped 23-percent from last year, to 2.1Mbps. Speeds in the good ol' US-of-A were up 15-percent for an average of 5.3Mbps, though we still languish in 14th place on the list of fastest countries. As expected, Asia continues to dominate the speed race, with 61 cities in Japan alone making the top 100 list. If you want the fastest connections the States have to offer you'll have to head for San Jose or Riverside in CA or the home of the Wu (that's Staten Island for those of you not in the know), which all tied with an average 7.8Mbps connection. Check out the PR after the break and click the more coverage link to download some charts.
