Since 2023, Russian companies have faced a notable rise in long-term distributed denial of service attacks. This trend has been highlighted by the Servicepipe company in reports cited by Vedomosti. Analysts note that the shift toward persistent DDoS campaigns marks a change in threat behavior, with attackers testing resilience and response times over extended periods. The pattern is shaping how organizations approach incident response, network hardening, and service continuity in the face of sustained disruption.
Servicepipe data show that five percent of all recorded DDoS incidents last year left a lasting impression on targets. In other words, these campaigns did not stop after a single wave of traffic; they persisted, returning in waves or maintaining a low, continuous level of pressure long after initial detection. The characterization of these events reveals a new reality for cyber defense teams who must monitor and mitigate effects that endure well beyond the first alert. The persistence of these attacks began in 2023 and continues into the current period, underscoring the need for durable protection measures and ongoing vigilance.
The most extended campaigns cited include incidents that started in February, March, May, and July 2022, as well as an attack that has been ongoing since February 2023. These events compromised a mix of commercial websites and local Internet resources, illustrating that the impact is not limited to a single sector or organization type. The range of targets demonstrates how persistent pressure can affect both large enterprises and smaller local services, with knock-on effects for customers, partners, and regional digital ecosystems. The breadth of this activity emphasizes the importance of scalable defensive architectures and rapid recovery planning.
Servicepipe notes that not all long-running DDoS episodes were driven by political motives. Among the five cited incidents, at least two appear to have origins in commercial rivalry or competitive pressure rather than geopolitical aims. This distinction matters for risk assessment, as it shifts some focus toward industry-specific threat modeling, supplier risk, and the potential for misuse of cyber tools in commercial disputes. Understanding motive helps security teams tailor detection rules, prioritize alerts, and coordinate with legal and regulatory teams when necessary. Attribution remains challenging, but awareness of possible nonpolitical drivers is essential for comprehensive defense planning.
Information security experts explain that the power of long-duration DDoS attacks typically peaks at the onset and gradually wanes as traffic patterns are analyzed and mitigations take effect. In many cases, the initial surge consumes available bandwidth, overwhelms defensive scrubbing capacity, or exhausts committed resources. As filters are tuned and traffic is diverted through scrubbing centers, the attack loses momentum, allowing services to recover and resume normal operation. This dynamic underscores the need for adaptive defense stacks that can ramp up during a spike and scale back afterward without sacrificing performance or user experience.
Experts offer a practical interpretation of what these campaigns may signify. Such a sustained assault can function as a probe to gauge how protection measures respond under stress, possibly revealing weaknesses in monitoring or automated controls. In some instances, attackers also attempt to disable protections altogether, testing the resilience of incident response plans and the reliability of protection services. For organizations, this means maintaining continuous monitoring, layered defenses, and well-practiced playbooks that can be executed quickly when a long-running event is detected. The goal is not only to endure the attack but to shorten its useful window and restore normal services with minimal disruption. The insights from Servicepipe’s leadership, including Daniil Shcherbakov, Deputy General Manager, highlight the importance of proactive defense and rapid decision-making as core components of cyber resilience.
In looking at the broader landscape, researchers note that the vast majority of smartphones and connected devices still face serious security vulnerabilities. While this observation extends beyond the specific DDoS incidents discussed, it reinforces the principle that endpoint security, secure configurations, and regular updates are integral to a robust defense posture. A holistic approach combines network-level protections with device hygiene, user awareness, and incident response coordination to reduce the risk surface across an organization and its ecosystem. The evolving threat environment calls for ongoing investment in detection capabilities, staffing, and cross‑team collaboration to protect digital operations over time. It also invites continuous reassessment of risk models, ensuring they reflect current attacker behaviors, technology trends, and regional threat activity as reported by security experts and industry observers.