India 7th most targeted country for Web Application Attacks: Report
According to a research titled "State of the Internet/Security Report" for Q4, 2017 by Akamai Technologies Inc., India ranked 7th among the most targeted countries for Web Application Attacks (WAA). The report also stated that the Distributed Denial of Service's (DDoS) attack frequency in India's Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI) sector increased by 50 percent in Q4 2017 over Q3 2017. Here's more.
Cyber attackers eyeing India's BFSI sector
According to the report, nearly 40 per cent of the total cyber attacks (over 53,000) in India during 2017, occurred in the financial sector. Security incidents like virus and ransomware, phishing, website intrusions among a host of other vulnerabilities targeted the country's rapidly growing BFSI sector. The ever-increasing threats call for a robust infrastructure and a conclusive road map for cyber security in India.
Akamai's data hints at mixed success for India
Interestingly, while India maintained the 7th rank in Q3 2017 as well, the number of web application attacks dropped by nearly 4 million in Q4. However, in the BFSI sector, DDoS attack frequency increased by 50 per cent in Q4 over Q3 2017.
DDoS attacks and Mirai botnet remain a threat
As per the report, after analyzing more than 7.3 trillion bot requests per month, Akamai found a sharp increase in the threat of credential abuse, with over 40 per cent of login attempts being malicious. Akamai's findings also confirm a 14 percent increase in DDoS attacks in Q4 as against Q4 2016, further indicating that DDoS attacks and Mirai botnet remain a consistent threat.
DDoS and Mirai botnet, simplified
In DDoS attack, multiple compromised computers attack a target (server, website or other network) forcing the target system to shut down, crash or slow down and thus denying any service to users of the targeted system. Mirai, identified in 2016, is a malware that turns networked devices like IP cameras or routers into remotely controlled bots which are then used to conduct large-scale attacks.
