Hackers Launch 133K+ Cyberattacks At G20 Summit

The G20 Summit, a global economic leadership forum attended by world leaders from 20 major economies, experienced an onslaught of malicious cyberattacks during this year’s event, which took place Sept. 3–6.

NSFOCUS, the security solutions provider tasked with supplying cybersecurity protection for all of the networks and applications associated with the G20 Summit, confirmed that it thwarted 133,254 attacks targeting the G20 network.

“Securing an event of the size and prominence of G20 is an enormous undertaking,” Dr. Richard Zhao, SVP of global threat research at NSFOCUS, explained in a statement.

“Cybercrime is evolving with hackers moving beyond traditional attacks to more advanced threats, and geopolitical conferences are always an ideal target for malicious activity. In order to combat these threats and ensure the security of the summit, NSFOCUS took a holistic approach and implemented an integrated and layered security solution to protect the G20. As a result, the event carried on as planned, and the striking number of incoming attacks did not disrupt activities,” Zhao continued.

NSFOCUS said that it secured 12,728 web applications and key pages during the global event. The NSFOCUS solutions utilized included IPS, anti-DDOS systems, remote security assessment systems, web application firewalls and WebSafe SaaS.

“During the course of the conference, NSFOCUS protected G20 assets and customers against a nonstop barrage of attacks,” Zhao explained. “Hundreds of thousands of attacks executed over the course of several days presents a significant danger to even the most secure network. It’s worrying, but not surprising, to see such a force unleashed on the summit. NSFOCUS is proud to have defeated these attacks on a key leadership forum like G20.”

NSFOCUS provided additional details of the cyberattacks, which included:

More than 2 million web attacks took place.

An additional 1.9 million attacks targeted G20 summit service providers.

Approximately 1,984 DDoS attacks were launched at the G20 network.

NSFOCUS discovered 611,356 vulnerabilities and guarded against 169,919 web attacks on G20 and G20-affiliated networks.

More attacks originated from the U.S., Russia and Brazil than any other location.