Arbor Network's new report—Arbor Networks’ Sixth Annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report—offers a rare view into the challenges of network operators on the front lines of a global battle against botnets and DDoS attacks. It is designed to provide data and insight that will enable network operators to make more informed decisions about their security strategies to ensure availability for mission-critical Internet and other IP-based infrastructure.

The report shows that 2010 should be viewed as the year distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks became mainstream. Many high-profile attacks were launched against popular Internet services and other well-known targets. The year also witnessed a sharp escalation in the scale and frequency of DDoS attack activity on the Internet. The 100 Gbps attack barrier was reached for the first time, while application-layer attacks hit an all-time high. Service providers experienced a marked impact on operational expense, revenue loss and customer churn as a result, according to this report by Arbor Networks, a leading provider of security and network management solutions for converged carrier networks and next-generation data centers.

Some of the report's highlights:

DDoS attacks have gone mainstream.

Attack size and frequency accelerated.

Application-layer DDoS attacks are increasing