Q1 2025 DDoS Surge: API Attacks Target Russian Retail and Telecom Sectors

In the first quarter of 2025, Russian companies faced a sharp increase in DDoS attacks, with APIs becoming the primary target. According to StormWall’s analytical center, attacks rose by 135% year-over-year, peaking at 988.64 Gbps bandwidth. Retail and telecom sectors were disproportionately affected, accounting for 70% of incidents¹.

Attack Trends and Sector Impact

The retail sector saw a 162% increase in API-targeted attacks, with 42% of all incidents occurring during holiday periods like International Women’s Day. Telecom providers experienced a 128% rise, often linked to geopolitical tensions. Financial institutions faced prolonged outages, including a 141-hour attack in March 2025^{2, 3}.

State-sector attacks grew by 29% YoY, primarily attributed to hacktivist groups. Multi-vector tactics combining L3/L4 volumetric attacks with L7 application-layer techniques were used in 60% of cases. Botnets leveraging IoT devices achieved packet rates of 359.33 Mpps⁴.

Technical Analysis of Attack Methods

Attackers exploited weak API authentication and rate-limiting, particularly in retail payment gateways and telecom customer portals. StormWall’s CEO noted that

“APIs are the Achilles’ heel of Russia’s digital economy”

, emphasizing the need for zero-trust gateways⁵.

DDoS-for-hire services on darknet markets offered attacks for as low as $200/hour. AI-driven botnets became prevalent, mimicking legitimate traffic to bypass traditional WAFs. The table below summarizes key attack metrics:

Sector	Attack Increase	Peak Bandwidth
Retail	162%	720 Gbps
Telecom	128%	988 Gbps
Finance	114%	650 Gbps

Mitigation Strategies

Effective countermeasures include:

AI-powered WAFs with behavioral analysis (e.g., Cloudflare, StormWall)
ISP-level protection like Rostelecom’s Clean Pipes
Quarterly stress tests simulating multi-vector attacks

Financial losses averaged $2.3M per major retail outage, with 68% of consumers abandoning brands after repeated downtime⁶.

Global Context and Future Outlook

Russia ranked 8th globally for DDoS attacks in 2024. While U.S. attacks grew by 12% YoY, EU incidents focused on healthcare APIs with 89% growth. The shift toward API exploitation suggests long-term risks for sectors with high digital service reliance⁷.

This trend highlights the need for cross-sector collaboration and advanced detection systems capable of identifying AI-driven attack patterns.