Report: Cyber Attacks At An All-time High

The San Jose headquartered cyber security company ThreatMetrix released its report for the second quarter of 2017. The study showed that cyber attacks reached their highest-ever levels.

According to ThreatMetrix’s study, the cyber security detected 144 million attacks in the last 90 days, which is an all-time high. The level and the rate of attacks are rising globally with the Asia Pacific region experiencing a yearly growth of 45 percent in cybercrime. ThreatMetrix researchers emphasized that the hackers are “increasingly targeting emerging digital business models”, including ridesharing apps and media streaming organizations.

The new report of the cyber security company revealed that global cybercrime has increased by nearly 100 percent since 2015. The researchers identified a new trend, which they think is the key driver of the surging cyber attacks. This is called “new account origination fraud”, which has increased by 30 percent since the first quarter of 2017. According to ThreatMetrix, when cybercriminals breach a system of an organization, institute or government, they use the stolen data to apply for new loans or create bank and eCommerce accounts. Furthermore, the hackers are using the stolen information to perform “large-scale identity credential testing” and to conduct attacks on “less traditional industries”, which are targets that they are not familiar with. The most dramatic statistics are connected to media companies who experienced a 527 percent increase in attacks.

“Highly organized criminal gangs have set their sights on disruptive, mobile-heavy industries like media streaming and ridesharing,” Vanita Pandey, vice president of product marketing and strategy at ThreatMetrix, said in a statement. Ms. Pandey emphasized that hackers are taking advantage of the emerging number of new business models in the digital economic sector. According to her, the cybercriminals are finding and testing new, innovative methods to monetize stolen login credentials. She added that most of the stolen information originates from the dark web. Ms. Pandey stated that hackers can use ridesharing applications to take trips using the stolen credentials. Furthermore, advanced criminals can also conduct two-party fraud, in which the main criminal is using a fake driver account and advertises his service on the dark web and only accepts customers who are using stolen credentials.

The ThreatMetrix report turned the main focus on the Asia Pacific region where the cyber security company identified the main trends regarding cybercrime. In addition to the 45 percent growth in “general” cybercrime from the second quarter of 2016, there was also an 80 percent increase in fraudulent mobile transactions in the same period of time. Furthermore, the primary focus of organized criminal attacks is concentrated on account takeovers and payment fraud. The cyber security company identified the Asia Pacific region as the global leader in device spoofing and identity spoofing attacks. ThreatMetrix highlighted that Japan joined the list of top five cyber attack destinations for the first time.