Bot-driven DDoS attacks that abuse credentials and use advanced techniques to threaten systems and networks are on the rise, according to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report.
Akamai has revealed its findings based on the analysis of nearly 112 billion bot requests and some 3.9 billion malicious login attempts with the hospitality and travel industries most frequently targeted. Nearly 40 percent of the traffic across hotel and travel sites is labeled as “impersonators of known browsers”, a known vector for fraud. Much of these attacks, nearly half in volume, originates from Russia, China and Indonesia.
Martin McKeay, Senior Security Advocate, Akamai and senior editor of the State of the Internet / Security report said:
“These countries have historically been large centers for cyber attacks, but the attractiveness of the hospitality industry appears to have made it a significant target for hackers to carry out bot-driven fraud.”
Advanced DDoS attacks that comb new techniques have also seen an increase of 16% over the last year. For instance, one attack coordinated over a group chats on STEM and IRC with human volunteers. Another method sees malicious actors overwhelm DNS servers with concentrated bursts lasting several minutes.
“Both of these attack types illustrate how attackers are always adapting to new defenses to carry out their nefarious activities,” McKeay added. “These attacks, coupled with the record-breaking 1.35 Tbps memcached attacks from earlier this year, should serve as a not-so-gentle reminder that the security community can never grow complacent.”
Fundamentally, business professionals should proactively embrace cybersecurity measures in an environment wherein attackers are always developing new strategies.
Image credit: Threat map image from LIFARS archive.
