The ThreatMetrix Digital Identity Network has revealed a report on cyber crime. According to the report Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore are among the top five attack destinations in Asia coming from US, UK, China and Canada. Hong Kong on the other hand is among prime targets for attacks in 2018 Q2, due to its status as a key financial hub.
The volume of cyber-attacks coming from China and Southeast Asia grew significantly year on year, with both being 157% and 59% respectively. The attack rate from China is higher than any other region analyzed in Q2, which stands at 20.9%. High prevalence of bot attacks also happen to be coming from Greater China.
India has the second-highest attack rate of all regions at 11.7%. From last quarter, growth in identity spoofing attacks have continued with 20% increase. Compared to last quarter, 33% growth in bot attack rate for transactions is coming from India.
As the mobile channel is a key enabler for financial inclusion in growth and emerging economies, mobile transactions are increasing. With this, mobile attack rates in Southeast Asia has experienced a growth rate of 63% in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year. Australia’s mobile attack rate experienced an increase of 26% in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year. Japan saw 75% year-on-year increase in digital transactions in the first half of 2018 and experienced 700,000 mobile attacks in the first half of 2018.
In comparison to the same quarter the previous year, Greater China and Southeast Asia have experienced 211% and 61% increase respectively in the financial attack rates in Q2 of 2018. Compared to last quarter, growth in the percentage of financial services attacks coming from ANZ was higher than any other region at 138%. In the second quarter of 2018, Australia experienced a 5% increase in financial services attacks. Whereas Japan experienced a 42% year-on-year increase in the financial services attacks in the first half of 2018.
Stolen identity data is fueling growth of cyber crime in growth and emerging economies. China appears on the top five attackers list for the first time ever this quarter.
Bot attacks are also in the list. This quarter, besides the US, Japan and South Korea, bot traffic was predominantly originating from Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, India, Brazil, and Thailand; an ever more dispersed list that includes a number of emerging economies. Bot attack rate for transactions coming from ANZ grew 33% in comparison to last quarter.
Now-a-days India is becoming a significant bot originator, with 33% growth in bot attack rate for transactions coming from India.
Social networks and dating websites have the highest mobile footprints of all industries - 85% of total transactions and 88% of account creations. Attack rates are high considering modest security requirements of social media and dating websites, offering test beds for stolen identity credentials.
Identity spoofing is the most prevalent attack vector (13.3% of all social network transactions), IP spoofing is also very high for social networks and dating websites - a combination of fraudsters and real users are trying to hide their locations. Top 5 countries hiding behind proxies for these industries are - Vietnam, Ghana, Nigeria, US and Philippines. Fraudsters in these countries are using proxy servers to make it appear they are actually based in the US, UK, Germany, or other locations local to their intended victims.
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