A type of distributed denial-of-service attack, DNS amplification, has risen sharply, according to new research from Symantec.

The security vendor said it saw a 183 percent increase in DNS (Domain Name System) amplification attacks, which abuse recursive DNS resolvers, from January through August.

Recursive DNS resolvers look up a domain name and return an IP address, which can be called into a browser.

But these types of servers return a large amount of data. Attackers abuse them by making requests but substituting the IP address of their victims.

That directs a large amount of data to the victims, consuming up to 50 times more bandwidth, making it an “amplification” attack.

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