"Triple-digit Increase in API and App Attacks on Tech and Retail"

Security researchers at Akamai have discovered that last year was a record-breaker in terms of API and application-based attacks on the EMEA retail sector, with detected threats surging 189%.  During the study, Akamai analyzed intelligence gathered from 340,000 servers in 4000 locations on 1300 networks in 134 countries.  The researchers saw a significant spike in attacks last year across the high-tech (176%) and social media (404%) sectors in EMEA.  Globally, the financial services sector also saw an increase in attacks based on 2021 figures.  However, in the UK, recorded threats declined by 4%, making this the only region to experience a decrease in this vertical.  The researchers suggested that this could be down to threat actors targeting individual account holders rather than large banking institutions.  Retail, high tech, and financial services remained by far the most popular targets for web attacks in 2022, accounting for over 70% of total detected threats during the year.  The researchers noted that elsewhere, attacks on the healthcare industry globally surged 55% from 2021 to 2022, driven by greater adoption of IoT equipment, which has expanded organizations’ attack surfaces.  The researchers also found that Local File Inclusion (LFI) remained the top attack vector in EMEA, with attacks growing 115% from 2021 to 2022.  Globally they surged by even more (193% year-on-year).

Infosecurity reports: "Triple-digit Increase in API and App Attacks on Tech and Retail"