Take the Q2 2017 State of the Internet/Security Report from Akamai Technologies, which shows that DDoS attacks in the second quarter of this year increased by 28% compared to the previous quarter - after three straight quarters of decline. At the same time, Akamai didn't see any DDoS attack exceed 100Gbps in size during Q2.

In contrast, just last quarter Verisign reported at least one attack that topped 120Gbps, and an average peak-attack size that was 26% higher than the previous year.

Numbers alone shouldn't dictate mitigation strategies: it's more important to understand that DDoS attacks have become a threat to most organizations. Attackers have become more persistent than before and have more resources available to them. A DDoS attack does not have to be multiple gigabits-per-second in order to overwhelm your pipeline.

"The barrier to entry has been obliterated by new tools and attack services that enable anyone with an Internet connection and a grievance to launch an attack," says Kevin Whalen, a senior director of marketing at Arbor Networks. Any business can become a target for a real or perceived reason, he says.

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