Most Recent Security Report
A Year in Review: A Look at 2023’s Cyber Trends and What's to Come
Our Security Intelligence Group reviews the year’s top events and offers perspective on what they mean for the future.
Past Security Reports
The High Stakes of Innovation: Attack Trends in Financial Services
Financial services remains one of the most heavily targeted industries for cyberattacks. As this industry continues to innovate, the attack surface grows and presents new risks that challenge the way financial services defend their network and customers. In our latest State of the Internet/Security (SOTI) report, Akamai researchers tackle the increasing sophistication and scale of attacks against financial services, including the rampant abuse of vulnerabilities to breach their targets, and the use of DDoS attacks by politically motivated threat actors. Additionally, the report provides safeguarding techniques to mitigate the risks posed by these attacks.
Ransomware on the Move: Evolving Exploitation Techniques
Ransomware groups are on the move, using aggressive methods of victimization, such as zero-day and one-day vulnerability abuse, to maximize damage to businesses. Learn how you can stop the threat of ransomware.
Entering Through the Gift Shop: Attacks on Commerce
Commerce organizations possess troves of confidential data, making them one of the most lucrative targets of cybercrime. Akamai research observed threats against commerce becoming more rampant, with more than 14 billion web application and API attacks in 15 months. Read our latest SOTI report to learn more about attacks impacting this vertical and its customers.
Slipping through the Security Gaps: The Rise of Application and API Attacks
The new SOTI report highlights the emerging attack vectors, such as Server-Side Request Forgery, that will continue to pose a serious threat to enterprises. Additionally, this report provides recommendations on how enterprises can safeguard their network against app and API attacks.
Attack Superhighway: A Deep Dive on Malicious DNS Traffic
In the latest State of the Internet / Security report, we examine malicious C2 traffic passing through the attack superhighway that is DNS. And through this analysis, we are able to ascertain the most significant threats and prevalent attacker groups targeting enterprises and home users today. Learn how these insights could help organizations enhance their security posture and assess security gaps.
FinServ: Enemy at the Gates: Analyzing Attacks on Financial Services
Financial services is one of the most attacked industries globally. Our recent research illustrates that attacks against FinServ are increasing in areas like phishing, DDoS, botnets, and web app and API. Find out why.
Gaming Respawned
The latest State of the Internet (SOTI) report examines the rising number of cyberattacks on the gaming industry— even as the easing of social distancing guidelines is keeping fewer people isolated.
Pirates in the Outfield
During the pandemic, more people want to access sports and entertainment from the safety of their homes. Unfortunately, in the past year, digital pirates around the globe have profited from this consumer demand by offering illegal access to digital content. Considering the television and film industries alone, there were 79 billion visits to piracy websites between January and September 2021. While the report doesn’t offer specific recommendations, it does suggest that with the right partner and the right visibility, an organization can put defenses in place, and potentially take the wind out of the pirates’ sails. Download the report now.
API: The Attack Surface That Connects Us All
API security is getting to be a bigger issue by the minute. Web application attacks tripled in 2021 (from 2020’s record year), and 88.72% of the attacks used common API vulnerabilities. In this new report, you’ll learn about the more common vulnerabilities that criminals seek to exploit (including one that was found in 86% of the API-dependent web applications tested), plus the challenges organizations face when they try to defend APIs with their standard network security solutions. This sweeping report also includes concrete steps you can take immediately to improve API security. Download the report now.
2021 State of the Internet / Security Research Report: Gaming in a Pandemic
Since the pandemic kept more people at home, there was an increase in the amount of time people spent gaming in 2020. This meant criminals had more opportunity to target gamers. In 2020, we saw an increase in both credential stuffing attacks (up 224%) and web attacks (up 340%). DDoS attacks against gamers were down by 20%, but they still made up nearly 50% of all DDoS attacks. Finally, we saw an increase in phishing attacks being deployed against mobile gamers. This research report explores the stories behind the numbers. Download your copy today.
2021 State of the Internet / Security: Phishing for Finance
It was another record-breaking year for cyberattacks against the financial industry. Credential stuffing attacks were up 45%, while SQL Injection and Local File Inclusion were the most common web attacks. Along with an overall increase in incidents, 2020 saw new daily peaks, with attacks reaching 63 million attacks in one day in November. And we witnessed the rise of phishing kits, which introduced a whole new approach for hackers to take. In our latest report, we teamed up with WMC Global to bring you a complete, in-depth look at the current state of cyberthreats against FinServ businesses.
2021 State of the Internet / Security Research Report: Adapting to the Unpredictable
Like virtually all enterprises in 2020, Akamai had to pivot thousands of employees to remote work in a matter of days. All while supporting a massive surge in platform traffic. And while criminals sought to exploit any vulnerability these upheavals might expose. This new report shows you how our own products protected us in 2020. You’ll see how many malicious DNS queries we deflected, what types they were, when each type spiked, and which departments were targeted. Download the report today. See how we secured Akamai and our customers through the unexpected.
2020 State of the Internet / Security: 2020 – A Year in Review
Internet traffic surged in 2020 and criminals took advantage, using their time at home to change the threat landscape forever. There were huge jumps in credential stuffing, web application, DDoS, phishing — just about every type of attack Akamai tracks. DDoS extortion came of age, with its potential to cripple businesses that refused to pay up. Also, playing on people’s boredom, an age-old phishing tactic snagged 5 million victims. Review the security stories that shaped a year like no other, and how they’re likely to change the security landscape for years to come. Download our report now.
2020 State of the Internet / Security: Loyalty for Sale – Retail and Hospitality Fraud
The numbers speak for themselves: Retail, travel, and hospitality industries attracted a startling 63% of credential stuffing attacks and 41% of web attacks. In this new State of the Internet / Security report, we go beyond this data, taking you into the criminal marketplace that makes these industries and their loyalty programs such popular targets. You’ll learn how criminals crack passwords, why SQLi is the leading web attack vector against these industries, and the price criminals will pay for stolen accounts and rewards. Of course, we’ll also look at steps you can take to protect your customers and brand. Download this report now.
2020 State of the Internet / Security: Gaming — You Can't Solo Security
Gamers are highly engaged consumers, and you can learn how they feel about the security of games, websites, and accounts from our new State of the Internet / Security report. You'll gain insights from a landmark DreamHack/Akamai security survey of more than 1,200 gamers, 81% of whom say they play every day. The report also features two years of actionable web attack, DDoS, and credential stuffing data — drawn from gaming, an industry that caters to passionate consumers with disposable income. Better still if you’re a gamer, you’ll learn why attacks succeed and how to protect yourself. Download this new report now.
2020 State of the Internet / Security: Credential Stuffing in the Media Industry (Special Edition)
What a year! 2020 began with Akamai Security researchers gaining greater visibility into the credential stuffing landscape just as the COVID-19 lockdowns began. Some attack trends continued. Many spiked exponentially. 2019’s 208% increase in credential stuffing attacks against video websites, for instance, suddenly paled in comparison to the 1,450% increase we saw in Q1 2020. And that’s just one data point. This report features two years of insights into how criminals target and attack fast-growing industries, and supplements it with data that shows how they pivot and scale when circumstances change. Download it now.
2020 State of the Internet / Security: Financial Services – Hostile Takeover Attempts
High-value targets generally attract the most sophisticated criminals and attacks. Our new State of the Internet / Security report looks at financial services and finds a number of emerging trends. We report on spikes in the number of credential stuffing attacks against APIs, LFI passing SQLi as the leading web attack vector against financial services, and a DDoS attack against one bank that reached an astounding 160 Gbps. And in a guest essay, you’ll learn about security marketing tactics that do more harm than good. We also explore the ability of Zero Trust to defend against credential stuffing, web application, and DDoS attacks. Download the report today.