One of the biggest victims of hacker attack attempts are the online media platforms according to a recent ThreatMetrix report that explores the security issues during the second quarter of 2016.
The Online Media Platforms Are a Favorite Hacker Playground
Among the biggest targets are P2P marketplaces where a lot of user-generated content is being offered at a more affordable price in comparison to major brands. Cyber criminals have spotted this trend and have used the lack of tight security to exploit some of these platforms. Using stolen or fake accounts, social engineering, and other methods the hackers target both the readers and the sites. There has been an increase of botnet attacks and fake accounts that attempt to overtake large amounts of sites.
The hackers usually use technologies to conceal the fake identities – proxies, devices and location spoofing techniques. As the “new currency,” digital identities are also gained by man-in-the-middle attacks and Trojan installations. A larger percentage of smartphone users now utilize various applications for payment; these users are a target as well.
The results of the report indicate that cybercrime attacks are on the rise. The top 5 attack originators include countries like India and the Dominican Republic. Most transaction attacks detected during the second quarter of 2016 are found to be made by fake accounts.
Some interesting figures from the report include the following:
- Over 55 million cyber attacks were detected and stopped in real time in Europe, which is a 66% increase in comparison with last year.
- The United Kingdom is the top European attack destination.
- Most attacks are conducted via fake and stolen accounts which are easily obtained from purchases conducted on the Dark Web.
- The cyber attacks are becoming more complex. There is a 50% increase of stolen data used in criminal campaigns.
- There is a 50% increase of bot attacks numbering about 450 million for the second quarter alone.
- The mobile payment cyber attacks are becoming more complex as the hackers continue to develop malware for both Android and iOS.
You can download the full report from the company’s website for more information.
