On Monday 4 April 2022 at 06:40 UTC, a UDP reflection (DNS) targeted a retail banking customer in the Middle East. The attack peaked at 364.0 Gbps and lasted 172 minutes. Traffic originated from 1519 autonomous systems in 63 countries, predominantly mobile carrier ranges.
| Vector | UDP reflection (DNS) |
| Peak | 364.0 Gbps |
| Duration | 172 min |
| Time to mitigation | 0.143 s |
| Attack traffic reaching origin | 0.066% |
| Legitimate traffic challenged | 0.08% |
Timeline
The attack was preceded by a ransom note demanding payment in Monero. Edge packet filters identified the flood by source port and payload signature and dropped it at line rate across 15 points of presence.
What the customer saw
A brief increase in p99 latency of 88 ms during the first minute, then normal service.
Recommendations
- Add a dedicated rate limit for the targeted route.
- Enable log streaming to your SIEM for faster correlation.
- Review allow-listed partner ranges quarterly.