According to recent research by Netacea into 440 organizations in the travel, entertainment, eCommerce, financial services, and telecoms sectors in the United States and the United Kingdom, businesses appear to be doing worse than last year in the battle against bots in almost every measure.
In the United Kingdom, 39% of businesses identified a cyber attack in 2022 – the same amount as the previous year. One in every five businesses reported a negative outcome as a direct result of a cyber attack, with one-third reporting at least one negative impact.
While in previous years, businesses may have been more naïve to the threat of bots and hackers, it’s clear that many are adopting preventative measures. However, are they doing enough?
What Are Bots?
Malware bots and internet bots can be programmed to hack into user accounts, search the internet for contact information, transmit spam, or engage in other malicious activities.
Attackers may spread harmful bots in a botnet (a bot network) to carry out these attacks and conceal the source of the attack activity. A botnet is a collection of internet-connected devices that individually run one or more bots, frequently without the device owners’ knowledge.
Similar to how a residential proxy masks geographic location, botnet activity originates from a variety of IP addresses, making it difficult to identify and stop the source of the malicious bot traffic.
Botnets frequently spread by utilizing devices to send spam emails, which infect new devices. Downloads are one of the most prevalent ways for bots to infiltrate your device.
Malware is sent in the form of a download link via social media or email messages. The link is frequently in the form of a photo or a video, both of which include viruses and other malware. If your computer has malware, it could be part of a botnet.
Myths About Bots
While we should stay vigilant for bot threats, there are plenty of misconceptions out there. Let’s debunk some common myths about bots:
- DDoS protection will stop all bot attacks – While DDoS protection can help keep websites online when they are overloaded by botnet traffic, this is not the same as a bot attack.
- Bot attacks only come from Russia and China – According to research, slightly more than a third of businesses have detected Russian and Chinese threats.
Meanwhile, nearly half of businesses reported threats from the United States and the United Kingdom, and many more from across Europe. - All bots are bought on the dark web – We’re seeing more and more data dumps of usernames and passwords made available on the “clear web” and accessible to everyone.
What Are The Current Trends With Hackers?
Data will continue to be a primary concern for businesses all over the world, especially with the shift in working practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead of working largely from the corporate office where more security precautions may be in place, a far larger share of the staff are now working remotely and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Although cyber security trends change every year, protecting digital data is the fundamental priority, whether for an individual or as an enterprise. Any tiny fault or error in your system browser or software can allow hackers to obtain sensitive information.
The pandemic triggered a cyber pandemic as cybercriminals adjusted to and exploited changes in corporate IT operations. While there are many things someone could do with your IP address, hacking into your device is one of them.
With the development of remote work, employees’ computers, frequently personal devices, became a company’s first line of defense. The spike in cloud use to serve remote workers and accomplish digital transformation goals has also introduced new attack vectors for hackers.
Since the quick move to remote and cloud computing, businesses have had the opportunity to address many of the major security vulnerabilities produced by a rapid shift with little or no advance planning.
However, significant cloud security gaps persist, and cybercriminals continue to outstrip security staff in taking advantage of cloud computing’s newly crucial position in modern business.
Which Business Sectors Are Most At Risk?
Hackers are most likely to steal financial, health, intellectual, and government information. This identifies the industries that are most vulnerable to data breaches.
The five industries most vulnerable to cybersecurity threats are as follows: healthcare and pharmaceuticals, finance and insurance, education and research, and retail. When it comes to DDoS and bot attacks, financial technology, gaming, and e-Commerce are suffering the most.
What Precautions Can Be Taken?
The most important thing for any business is to keep updated on hacking and bot threats. You can secure your website against it if you have at least a basic understanding of what is occurring.
Educating employees on security is another great step, especially as remote working continues to be on the rise for the foreseeable future. Additionally, keep your systems updated.
Many businesses do not install software updates immediately, however delaying an update exposes you to attack in the interim period if the cause for the upgrade is a security issue. Hackers can search thousands of websites per hour for flaws that will allow them to break in.
