Christmas Day Web App Attacks Continue to Increase on Average, Warns Imperva

Joseph Henry, Tech Times 21 December 2021, 01:12 pm

Imperva, a cyber security firm, warns about the continued growth of Christmas web app attacks in the United Kingdom. With that, users should be cautious about their apps since they could put their assets and business at risk.

251% Jump in Web App Attacks in the UK

Christmas Day Web App Attacks Continue to Increase on Average, Warns Imperva

(Photo : Patricia Zavala from Unsplash )
Web app attacks in the UK during Christmas are persistently growing in numbers, according to Imperva, a cyber security firm.

According to Imperva via TechRadar, the U.K. establishments have encountered a surge of 251% in terms of web app attacks in the country. This jump had begun since October 2019 up to the present. The organization anticipated that it would continue to escalate this upcoming holiday season.

Imperva warned the consumers and companies that they could suffer from a "crappy appy" Christmas instead of a happy one because of these cybersecurity concerns. The firm discovered that the web attacks kept increasing by 22% per quarter on average.

To add, from the second quarter of 2021, the cases of attacks accelerated to 67.9% en route to Q3 2021.

The Exact Nature of Christmas Web App Attacks

To understand it clearer, Imperva is tackling the incidents involving remote code execution (RCE) and remote file inclusion. These cyberattacks have been exploiting several businesses and stealing their confidential credentials.

If the remote hackers do not steal information from them, they would instead infect the systems and compromise the healthy servers. Imperva witnessed how a 271% increase has quickly taken over organizations at severe risk.

Regarding the web applications, the security company found out on its report that 50% of the breaching schemes started from them. Moreover, the risk of exposure will only keep on skyrocketing since over 70% of web traffic comes from APIs.

Per Imperva's Director of Technology, Peter Klimek, the pandemic has prompted most businesses to go online. As a result, hackers have more accessible outlets to compromise in this digital age.

Klimek considered the pandemic a driving factor behind the increase of web app attacks in the U.K.

"Developments like the rapid proliferation of APIs and the shift to cloud-native computing is beneficial from a DevOps standpoint, but for security teams, these changes in application architecture and the accompanying increased attack surface is making their jobs much, much harder," Klimek said.

FBI Warns People of Holiday Scams

Earlier this week, News Journal reported that the FBI issued a warning to consumers who want to go holiday shopping this Christmas. According to the organization, online scams are in full swing. They could rob sensitive information from the shoppers apart from their money.

Last year, the FBI said consumers had lost more than $53 million because of holiday scams in the United States alone.

To prevent being an online holiday scam victim, Tech Times reported that you should follow tips such as avoiding scammy pitches, limiting your spending using your credit card, and more.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry