Akamai releases third quarter 2013 ‘State of the Internet’ report

GETTING FASTER: According to Akamai, the global average connection speed continued its upward trend in the third quarter of 2013, climbing 10% over the previous quarter to 3.6 Mbps. - AFP

Akamai Technologies Inc, the leading web services provider, has come out with its quarterly State of Internet Report  and has revealed some interesting facts.

TheThird Quarter, 2013 State of the Internet Report  showed the global average connection speed continuing its upward trend, China overtook Indonesia to be the country where most attack traffic originated from; and that European countries have taken a clear lead in IPv6 adoption.


1. Global Average and Average Peak Connection Speeds

a) Average Connection speeds

The global average connection speed continued its upward trend in the third quarter of 2013, climbing 10% over the previous quarter to 3.6 Mbps. A total of 122 countries/regions that qualified for inclusion saw average connection speeds increase during the third quarter, with growth ranging from 0.5% in Namibia (to 1.1 Mbps) to a 76% increase in Nepal (to 3.6 Mbps).
Average connection speeds saw a 29% year-over-year increase, with all of the top 10 countries/regions climbing 27% or more.

Globally, 133 qualifying countries/regions saw year-over-year increases in average connection speeds, from 0.2 percent in Egypt (to 1.2 Mbps) to 259 percent in Réunion (to 6.8 Mbps).

b) Average peak connection speeds

Global average peak connection speeds showed a slight decline in the third quarter of 2013, dropping 5.2% to 17.9 Mbps.

Seven of the top 10 countries/regions saw increases in average peak connection speeds during the quarter, ranging from 0.5% in Hong Kong (to 65.4 Mbps) to 19% in South Korea (to 63.6 Mbps).

Meanwhile, Romania, Latvia and Belgium saw declines of 4.4, 3.3 and 3.6% to 45.4, 43.1 and 38.5 Mbps, respectively.

Year over year, the global average peak connection speed grew 13 percent over the third quarter of 2012.

Yearly increases among the top 10 countries/regions ranged from 15% in Latvia to 63% in Singapore. Worldwide, 115 qualifying countries/regions showed yearly growth in average connection speeds, with increases ranging from 0.3% in South Africa (to 11.9 Mbps) to 111% in Palestine (to 19.9 Mbps).

Global high broadband (>10 Mbps) adoption rose 31% quarter-over-quarter to reach 19%. Global broadband (>4 Mbps) adoption improved 5.8% over the quarter to reach 53%.

“In the third quarter of 2013, we observed that long-term growth in average and average peak connection speeds remained strong, as did growth in global broadband and high broadband adoption rates. We believe these trends point to continued improvement in the quality and performance of Internet connectivity in countries around the world,” said David Belson, the report’s editor.

Attack Traffic and Security

Akamai identified the top countries from which attack traffic originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these attacks.

Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 185 unique countries/regions during the third quarter of 2013, up 10 over the previous quarter. China, which originated 35% of observed attacks, returned to the top spot this quarter after having been unseated by Indonesia in the second quarter.

Indonesia, meanwhile, dropped back to second place after originating 20% of observed attacks – slightly more than half of the volume seen in the second quarter. The United States remained in third place as it originated 11% of observed attacks during the third quarter, up from 6.9% in the previous quarter.

Overall, the concentration of attacks declined during the third quarter of 2013, with the top 10 countries originating 83% of observed attacks, compared to 89% in the second quarter. China and Indonesia, however, continued to originate more than half of all observed attack traffic.

After dropping to third place in the second quarter, Port 445 (Microsoft-DS) returned to its spot as the most targeted port in the third quarter, drawing 23% of observed attacks. Port 80 (WWW [HTTP]) and Port 443 (SSL [HTTPS]) dropped to second and third place at 14 and 13%, respectively.

Port 445 was the most targeted port in eight of the top 10 countries/regions, the only exceptions being China and Indonesia. Port 1433 (Microsoft SQL Server) was the top target for China, and Port 443 was the most targeted from Indonesia.

DDoS attacks

In addition to observations on attack traffic, the State of the Internet Report includes insight into distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks based on reports from Akamai customers.

For the first time since the fourth quarter of 2012, when Akamai began reporting on DDoS attacks, fewer attacks were reported than the previous quarter, with 281 observed in the third quarter of 2013 compared to 318 during the second quarter (down 11%). Overall, Akamai saw more attacks through the third quarter of 2013 (807) than it did in all of 2012 (768).The Enterprise sector continued to be the leading target of DDoS attacks with 127 reported in the third quarter; Commerce was next with 80, followed by Media & Entertainment (42), Public Sector (18) and High Tech (14).

Akamai has also started to examine the likelihood that attack targets may be subject to follow-up attacks. Out of the 281 third-quarter attacks, 169 were focused on unique targets. During the quarter, 27 customers were attacked for a second time; five reported three attacks; and seven companies were attacked more than three times.

Initial analysis of the data indicates that if a company is the target of a DDoS attack, there is a 25% chance that it could be attacked again within three months.

“Although the number of DDoS attacks reported by Akamai customers in the third quarter declined from the previous quarter, we believe that 2013 will ultimately be a significantly more active year for DDoS attacks than 2012,” Belson said.

“As of the end of the third quarter, customers had already reported more DDoS attacks than they did in all of 2012.”

Global Internet Penetration
More than 760 million unique IPv4 addresses from 239 unique countries/regions connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform during the third quarter of 2013, a 1.1% increase over the second quarter and an 11% 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.

The number of unique IPv4 address seen by the Akamai Intelligent Platform worldwide rose by more than eight million over the quarter, with growth observed in six of the top 10 countries.

Year over year, the number of global unique IPv4 addresses connecting to Akamai grew by more than 123 million, with nine of the top 10 countries/regions showing growth.

IPv6 Adoption

For the first time, the State of the Internet Report includes data leveraged directly from the Akamai Intelligent platform to provide insights into IPv6 adoption across numerous vectors.
European countries have taken a clear lead in IPv6 adoption, with seven of the top 10 countries.

Conversely, only one country in Asia Pacific (Japan) is among the top 10.

Over the course of the third quarter of 2013, IPv6 traffic levels on the Akamai Intelligent Platform grew from just over 176,000 hits/second to more than 277,000 hits/second. IPv6 traffic continued to exhibit a cyclical weekly pattern, with volumes dipping each Saturday, likely indicating a greater level of IPv6 adoption across corporate/enterprise networks than consumer ISPs.

Akamai expects to include this information, as well as insight into IPv6 adoption trends over time, within the State of the Internet Report going forward.

Mobile Connectivity
Average connection speeds on surveyed mobile network operators during the third quarter of 2013 ranged from a high of 9.5 Mbps to a low of 0.6 Mbps, while average peak connection speeds ranged from 49.8 Mbps to 2.4 Mbps.

Eighteen operators showed average connection speeds in the broadband (>4 Mbps) range. According to data collected by Ericsson, the volume of mobile traffic increased by approximately 10% during the third quarter and grew by 80% year over year.

Analysis of Akamai IO data collected during the third quarter shows that Android Webkit-based browsers accounted for nearly 38% of all requests and Apple Mobile Safari slightly less than 24%.

When accounting for mobile device usage across all networks (not just cellular), Apple Mobile Safari comprised just over 47% of requests and Android Webkit made up 33% of requests.

New App
To complement the report, Akamai’s State of the Internet app was introduced.The new app brings the State of the Internet to users’ iPhones and iPads. The app provides easy access to interactive State of the Internet data such as unique IP addresses, attack volume, connection speeds and broadband adoption, along with current and past quarterly reports as well as related news.

Akamai’s State of the Internet app is available in the Apple App Store.


To access the archive of past reports go to www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. To download the figures from the Third Quarter, 2013 State of the Internet Report go to: http://wwwns.akamai.com/soti/soti_q313_figures.zip