Hackers love the holidays

The article by John Graham-Cumming on CloudFlare's network shows a significant increase in DDoS attack statistics during the Thanksgiving holiday period, with 1/5 of attacks occurring on Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. Unlike Earth Day when there was a large drop in attack activity due to machines being turned off, this year's Thanksgiving showed that many hacked machines were online throughout the holiday. Looking back at December 2011 data, CloudFlare observed two peaks of DDoS attack activity: one just before Christmas and another just after. This suggests that while there may be a brief lull during the Christmas holiday period, attackers will likely continue to disrupt businesses during critical pre- and post-Christmas sales periods. Despite this, CloudFlare's staff remains vigilant in protecting against attacks.