Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks increased 83 percent to more than 182,900 attacks in the second quarter of the year, according to Nexusguard’s “Q2 2016 Threat Report.“

Nexusguard, which sells DDoS security solutions, analyzes a network of vulnerable devices for new cyberthreats across country and organizational boundaries.

Q2 2016 has been rather active the report notes.

The report says Russia-known for its own cyber criminals-is now the number one victim of DDOS attacks. Starlink – a Russian internet service provider supporting small, medium and large enterprises – received more than 40 percent of the DDoS attacks measured over a two-day period.

U.S. sees small decline

The U.S., which saw a small 5 percent reduction in attacks, and China, which experienced a 50 percent increase, are also top three target countries and the report says the U.S. presidential election and the summer Olympics will inspire more such attacks.

“We were surprised to see an increase in DDoS attacks this quarter, especially as hackers experiment with ransomware, phishing schemes and other data-grabbing methods for monetary gain,” said Terrence Gareau, chief scientist at Nexusguard. “Organizations can expect cyberattacks to continue growing in frequency this year.”

Hackers are experimenting with new attack methodologies, and with the upcoming Olympics in Brazil and political tensions around the world, Nexusguard researchers predict these factors will contribute to a DDoS spike in Q3.

For the full report see: https://news.nexusguard.com/threat-advisories/q2-2016-ddos-threat-report