Microsoft has crushed the worst DDoS attack its Azure servers have ever encountered

Hacker targeting Microsoft Azure customer — (Image credit: LightRocket)

An unnamed Microsoft Azure customer has recently been targeted by a profound 2.4 Tbps DDoS attack. Thankfully the cloud service was able to fend off the onslaught and, despite its intensity, the customer's site remains unaffected.

Azure caters for huge household names such as Ubisoft, eBay, Samsung, and Boeing... even the City of Taipei council relies on the cloud data service. As such, we're pretty glad to hear the attacks were unsuccessful.

Attacks of this size demonstrate the ability of bad actors to wreak havoc by flooding targets with gigantic traffic volumes
Azure spokesperson

The intrusion—which originated from around 70,000 sources across the USA, Vietnam, and Taiwan, among other countries—lasted just 10 minutes. But each short volley took mere seconds to reach heights of 2.4 Tbps, 0.55 Tbps, and 1.7 Tbps (via The Verge).

That puts it down as the most intense barrage Azure has ever had to deal with, at 140% higher than the company's 2020's DDoS attack.

An announcement from Microsoft Azure notes: "Attacks of this size demonstrate the ability of bad actors to wreak havoc by flooding targets with gigantic traffic volumes trying to choke network capacity.

"However, Azure’s DDoS protection platform, built on distributed DDoS detection and mitigation pipelines, can absorb tens of terabits of DDoS attacks."

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It makes a nice change to report on an attack that was sidestepped, rather than one which causes a mega-calamity. But as always this is a frightful reminder that cybercrime is not going away, or letting up any time soon.

It'll keep evolving, as we know: "All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you." Ghost in the Shell quotes aside, do make sure you're keeping up with your cybersecurity best practises. Stay safe out there.

Having been obsessed with game mechanics, computers and graphics for three decades, Katie took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni and has been writing about digital games, tabletop games and gaming technology for over five years since. She can be found facilitating board game design workshops and optimising everything in her path.