
January 23, 2013 Akamai Releases Third Quarter 2012 State of the Internet Report
Contacts
Rob Morton
Media Relations
617-444-3641
rmorton@akamai.com or Natalie Temple
Investor Relations
617-444-3635
ntemple@akamai.com
More than 680 million unique IP addresses connected to Akamai Intelligent Platform
Observed attack traffic originated from more than 180 countries or regions
Observed Distributed Denial of Service attacks against banking industry reached total traffic levels of 65 Gbps
High broadband (>10 Mbps) adoption reached 11 percent and broadband (>4 Mbps) adoption reached 41 percent globally
CAMBRIDGE, MA January 23, 2013 Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today released its Third Quarter, 2012 State of the Internet report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform , the report provides insight into key global statistics including connection speeds, attack traffic, and network connectivity and availability, among many others.
In addition, the Third Quarter, 2012 State of the Internet report includes an analysis of the Operation Ababil DDoS attacks against the banking industry in the United States and an examination of mobile browser usage by network connection type collected via Akamai IO. Further, the report provides a review of third quarter Internet disruptions in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria based on Akamai traffic patterns observed within those countries.
Highlights from Akamais third quarter, 2012 report:
Global Internet Penetration
More than 680 million IPv4 addresses from 243 countries/regions connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform during the third quarter of 2012. The figure represents an 11 percent increase year over year. Since a single IP address can represent multiple individuals in some cases - such as when users access the Web through a firewall or proxy server - Akamai estimates the total number of unique Web users connecting to its platform during the quarter to be well over one billion.
For the second quarter in a row, Brazil experienced the greatest year-over-year growth (39 percent) within the group of top 10 countries with the most unique IPv4 addresses connecting to the Akamai Intelligent Platform. In the same top 10 group, China (5.7 percent) showed the largest quarter-over-quarter increase.
Analysis of the full set of countries that connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform in the third quarter showed that nearly 60 percent saw a quarterly increase and almost 12 percent saw increases of 10 percent or more.
Attack Traffic and Top Ports Attacked
Akamai maintains a distributed set of agents deployed across the Internet that monitors attack traffic. Based on data collected by these agents, Akamai is able to identify the top countries from which attack traffic originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these attacks.
Akamai observed attack traffic from 180 unique countries/regions during the third quarter of 2012, down from 188 in the second quarter. China maintained its position as the single largest volume source of observed traffic at 33 percent. The United States, at number two, experienced a slight increase in originated attack traffic with 13 percent. Russia replaced Turkey in the number three spot by generating 4.7 percent.
During the quarter, the top 10 countries/regions were responsible for generating 72 percent of the observed attack traffic. Within the top 10, slightly more than 50 percent of attack traffic was generated by three countries: China, the United States and Russia.
Receiving 30 percent of observed attack traffic, Port 445 (Microsoft-DS) remained the most targeted port. Port 23 (Telnet) was a distant second at only 7.6 percent.
Operation Ababil
Akamai was involved in protecting some of the organizations targeted by a series of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks known as Operation Ababil that occurred in September 2012. As a result, Akamai observed attacks with the following characteristics:
Up to 65 gigabits per second (Gbps) of total attack traffic that varied in target and technique
A significant portion (nearly 23 Gbps) of the attack traffic was aimed at the Domain Name System (DNS) servers that are used for Akamais Enhanced DNS services
Attack traffic to Akamais DNS infrastructure included both UDP and TCP traffic which attempted to overload the servers, and the network in front of them, with spurious requests
The majority of the attack traffic requested legitimate Web pages from Akamai customer sites over HTTP & HTTPS in an attempt to overload the Web servers
Some attack traffic consisted of junk packets that were automatically dropped by Akamai servers
Some attack traffic consisted of HTTP request floods to dynamic portions of sites such as branch/ATM locators and search pages
Global Average and Peak Connection Speeds
The global average connection speed decreased by approximately seven percent between the second and third quarters of 2012 to 2.8 Mbps. South Korea continued to have the highest average connection speed at 14.7 Mbps. Japan (10.7 Mbps) and Hong Kong (8.9 Mbps) rounded out the top three countries for average connection speed in the quarter.
Despite the slight quarter-over-quarter decline, global average connection speed enjoyed healthy 11 percent growth year over year.
Similar to the average connection speed metric, the global average peak connection speed also saw a minor quarter-over-quarter decline, dropping 1.4 percent to 15.9 Mbps. In the third quarter of 2012, Hong Kong boasted the highest peak connection speed at just more than 54 Mbps.
Looking at year-over-year changes, significant improvement was once again seen in the global average peak connection speed, growing
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
31/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/10/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that live event production company FOH Productions has built a portable camera switching and control flypack that uses Rie...
30/10/2026
A highlight clip goes to air after a person says yes. What would it take to say how often that yes had to be earned?
Andreas EhstandA common design for automat...
30/10/2026
SNF's Chiefs-Seahawks leads the week with 26.3 million, Prime Video's Pa...
30/10/2026
The company aims to be more horizontal and not vertical' in managing sports rights and producing events
GRUP MEDIAPRO has begun charting a new course that...
30/10/2026
Player mics, an in-arena drone, enhanced replay operations, and a full onsite pr...
30/10/2026
By Ramona Flume
Each harvest season brings a sense of renewal and possibility. ...
30/10/2026
(L-R) Peter Dinklage, Alexander Skarsg rd, and Olivia Colman attend the Q&A for Wicker by Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, an official selection of the...
30/10/2026
Creates melodies from wavetables
BangZilla is the new plug-in division of The Audio Programmer, and their debut offering comes in the form of Wave Theory, a...
30/10/2026
30 October - 1 November 2026
This years AES Show is just around the corner, with this year's event marking the annual convention's first appearance ...
30/10/2026
Company launch new digitally controlled analogue hardware
Neve have just entered the world of digitally controlled analogue in style with not one, but four ...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
GB Labs Wins Future's Best of Show Award for Core.ONE, Presented by TVBEurope at IBC 2026
GB Labs, a leader in scalable, shared storage solutions, has rec...
30/10/2026
Lightware is introducing GPIO Button control for its Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows (MTRoW) integration, giving users a simple, one-touch way to switch betwee...
30/10/2026
Lightware has added AVIXA Renewal Units (RUs) to its D sseldorf in-person training program, allowing AV professionals to earn recognized professional developmen...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/10/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced Nuke Stage now supports macOS, making the end-to-end virtual production and in-camera visual effects (ICVFX)...
30/10/2026
While science fiction lore tells us that humans will meet extraterrestrial life ...
29/10/2026
Jameis Winston and Willie Colon are among current and former players hosting pro...
29/10/2026
After arriving in Fayetteville with dreams of calling games, the Arkansas native found her passion in the control room, building a promising future in replay an...
29/10/2026
The National Hockey League is taking on a larger role in local game production w...
29/10/2026
Media Links has appointed Mikhail Zavalin Market Development Technical Specialis...
29/10/2026
Gravity Media delivered the live broadcast and media infrastructure for the 2026...
29/10/2026
Rise AV has announced the 23 women selected for the second year of its Elevate program, a six-week management and leadership development course. The cohort incl...
29/10/2026
The F d ration Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced a global partnership under which AWS becomes the Official A...
29/10/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has appointed Bob Daniel Storage and Workflow Solutions Architect within its Enterprise Storage team. Daniel has more than 30 years...
29/10/2026
FloSports and the Pac-12 Conference have entered a media partnership that will b...
29/10/2026
TSN will launch Film Never Lies Grey Cup Playoffs Watchalong, an altcast hosted by TSN football analyst Luke Willson, for two CFL Grey Cup Playoffs games. Wills...
29/10/2026
For decades, broadcasters have designed production around one rule: build for th...
29/10/2026
Live event production company FOH Productions has built a portable camera switch...
29/10/2026
Gravity Media is marking its 25th year facilitating the host broadcast for the M...
29/10/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
29/10/2026
LA28 has named film producer Kathleen Kennedy Head of Ceremonies and Content for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Kennedy, an eight-time Academy Award nom...
29/10/2026
In-house local telecasts have added new camera angles, graphics package, and dee...
29/10/2026
In this SVG New Sponsor Spotlight, Jake Blount, EVP, Sales, ICAT Logistics, disc...
29/10/2026
Mastering plug-in treated to ground-up rebuild
With a few plug-in releases now under their belt, Musik Hack have revisited their debut offering and kitted i...
29/10/2026
New modular full-range monitoring system arrives
Following a few weeks of teasers, HEDD Audio have just revealed the latest addition to their high-end monit...
29/10/2026
SGL Carbon LLC ( SGL Carbon ) has received an additional order for the supply of nuclear graphite from X-energy Reactor Company, LLC ( X-energy ) in accordance ...
29/10/2026
Rohde & Schwarz introduces MXO AI Connect for AI-assisted oscilloscope workflows Rohde & Schwarz connects AI assistants to its MXO oscilloscopes through MXO A...
29/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/10/2026
When LinkedIn set out to upgrade meeting spaces across nine APAC cities, the goal was clear: employees needed to walk into rooms in Bangalore, Beijing, Hong Kon...
29/10/2026
Lightware has expanded its LARA (Lightware Advanced Room Automation) Wizard platform with a new Elgato Stream Deck integration, allowing supported Stream Deck d...