<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=41499846&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=Akamai+Technologies" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Technologies</a>, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today announced the availability of&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=3827592169&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fproducts%2Fbrand-protector&amp;a=Brand+Protector" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Brand Protector</a>, a new solution that detect and disrupt phishing sites, fake stores, and brand impersonations. Brand Protector enables organizations to retain and grow customer loyalty while minimizing loss, drops in productivity and bad customer feedback.

According to Google, over 50,000 new phishing websites are created every week. Akamai Brand Protector inspects trillions of digital activities a day across both internal and external sources to discover abuse of an organization's brand – often before an attack campaign launches. This shields businesses from revenue loss and increased risk by combating fake goods sales, phishing sites and unauthorized use of brand elements outside of its environment and across the internet.

Brand Protector addresses the problem of fraudulent impersonations with a four-step approach:

Intelligence:&nbsp;As the world's largest distributed edge and cloud platform, our proprietary view across the worldwide web traffic analyzes over 600 TB of data a day. The depth of intelligence in Brand Protector is enhanced with third-party data feeds for holistic visibility into attacker actions everywhere.Detection:&nbsp;Today's brand attacks automate the deployment of malicious, short-lived websites. Akamai Brand Protector traces live traffic to detect brand abuse often before a phishing campaign begins - instead of relying on refreshed lists or delayed feeds. The outcome reduces attack impact, protecting customers and brand trust.Visibility:&nbsp;Customer-centric design gives security teams vital security insight in a single dashboard view. After receiving intelligence, data signals are run through a series of heuristic and AI detectors. Akamai's simplified user interface provides an instant understanding of real-time threats to customers via impersonations. Findings are ranked by threat score and users click into an alert to view analyzed threat data including confidence score, severity rating, number of affected users and a timeline of attack events.Mitigation:&nbsp;Integrated takedown services help close the loop to combat brand fraud. Brand Protector enables security teams to issue a takedown request of the abusive site right in the detection screen. Takedown requests for Brand Protector automatically attach the detection's evidence and supporting details for ease of use.

"Attackers are increasingly abusing trusted brand names to lure end-users through phishing and fake sites for the promise of financial gain," said&nbsp;Rupesh Chokshi, Senior Vice President&nbsp;and General Manager, Application Security at Akamai. "Detecting the rapid deployment of these attack campaigns and mitigating them can be a challenge for global brands. Brand Protector retains customer loyalty and revenue by addressing these external attack campaigns before they can gain momentum."

To learn more about Akamai's Brand Protector and other products and capabilities that empower customers to provide consistent online experiences, please visit:&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=2348149283&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fproducts&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fproducts" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://www.akamai.com/products</a>.

Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences&nbsp;— helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. Akamai Connected Cloud, a massively distributed edge and cloud platform, puts apps and experiences closer to users and keeps threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security, compute, and delivery solutions at&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=1184383425&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=akamai.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=2902792669&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog&amp;a=akamai.com%2Fblog" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com/blog</a>, or follow Akamai Technologies on&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=1681307755&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAkamai&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=4270288306&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fakamai-technologies%2F&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>.

<h1>Akamai Announces Brand Protector to Defend Against Phishing Attacks and Fake Websites</h1><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=41499846&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=Akamai+Technologies" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Technologies</a>, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today announced the availability of&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=3827592169&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fproducts%2Fbrand-protector&amp;a=Brand+Protector" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Brand Protector</a>, a new solution that detect and disrupt phishing sites, fake stores, and brand impersonations. Brand Protector enables organizations to retain and grow customer loyalty while minimizing loss, drops in productivity and bad customer feedback.According to Google, over 50,000 new phishing websites are created every week. Akamai Brand Protector inspects trillions of digital activities a day across both internal and external sources to discover abuse of an organization's brand – often before an attack campaign launches. This shields businesses from revenue loss and increased risk by combating fake goods sales, phishing sites and unauthorized use of brand elements outside of its environment and across the internet.Brand Protector addresses the problem of fraudulent impersonations with a four-step approach:Intelligence:&nbsp;As the world's largest distributed edge and cloud platform, our proprietary view across the worldwide web traffic analyzes over 600 TB of data a day. The depth of intelligence in Brand Protector is enhanced with third-party data feeds for holistic visibility into attacker actions everywhere.Detection:&nbsp;Today's brand attacks automate the deployment of malicious, short-lived websites. Akamai Brand Protector traces live traffic to detect brand abuse often before a phishing campaign begins - instead of relying on refreshed lists or delayed feeds. The outcome reduces attack impact, protecting customers and brand trust.Visibility:&nbsp;Customer-centric design gives security teams vital security insight in a single dashboard view. After receiving intelligence, data signals are run through a series of heuristic and AI detectors. Akamai's simplified user interface provides an instant understanding of real-time threats to customers via impersonations. Findings are ranked by threat score and users click into an alert to view analyzed threat data including confidence score, severity rating, number of affected users and a timeline of attack events.Mitigation:&nbsp;Integrated takedown services help close the loop to combat brand fraud. Brand Protector enables security teams to issue a takedown request of the abusive site right in the detection screen. Takedown requests for Brand Protector automatically attach the detection's evidence and supporting details for ease of use."Attackers are increasingly abusing trusted brand names to lure end-users through phishing and fake sites for the promise of financial gain," said&nbsp;Rupesh Chokshi, Senior Vice President&nbsp;and General Manager, Application Security at Akamai. "Detecting the rapid deployment of these attack campaigns and mitigating them can be a challenge for global brands. Brand Protector retains customer loyalty and revenue by addressing these external attack campaigns before they can gain momentum."To learn more about Akamai's Brand Protector and other products and capabilities that empower customers to provide consistent online experiences, please visit:&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=2348149283&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fproducts&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fproducts" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://www.akamai.com/products</a>.About AkamaiAkamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences&nbsp;— helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. Akamai Connected Cloud, a massively distributed edge and cloud platform, puts apps and experiences closer to users and keeps threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security, compute, and delivery solutions at&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=1184383425&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=akamai.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=2902792669&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog&amp;a=akamai.com%2Fblog" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com/blog</a>, or follow Akamai Technologies on&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=1681307755&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAkamai&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3847905-6&amp;h=4270288306&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fakamai-technologies%2F&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>.

Electronic components / Semiconductors / Electrical equipment

Software

Security

Telecommunications / VoIP

Hardware / Electronics / Peripherals

Akamai Announces Brand Protector to Defend Against Phishing Attacks and Fake Websites

- QSnatch infections are currently the largest botnet threat in enterprise environments

- Attacks could result in the take down of servers, data theft, and disruption of services

- Globally, about 12 percent of organizations have showed signs of a breach the past year

<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=3750060101&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=Akamai+Technologies%2C+Inc." target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Technologies, Inc.</a>&nbsp;(NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today announced a new State of the Internet report that focuses on the threats to businesses and consumers in&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;caused by malicious Domain Name System (DNS) traffic.

Key findings from the&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;(APAC) report include:

- QSnatch becomes largest APAC botnet threat: QSnatch - malware that specifically targets QNAP, a type of network attached storage (NAS) device used for backups or file storage by businesses – was by far the largest botnet threat in enterprise environments in APAC in 2022. Almost 60 percent of affected devices in APAC were infected with QSnatch, making this region second only to North America in terms of devices with QSnatch infections globally.&nbsp;

- Rise of enterprise command and control traffic:&nbsp;

Between 10 percent and 16 percent of organizations globally encounter command and control (C2) traffic in their network in any given quarter, indicating the possibility of an attack or breach in progress. In APAC, Akamai observed about 15 percent of affected devices reaching out to Initial Access Brokers (IABs) domains.&nbsp;These are cyber-criminal gangs who sell unauthorized access to breached networks to other cyber criminals, such as ransomware groups.&nbsp;

- APAC suffers highest home network threats globally:&nbsp;

APAC recorded far higher consumer home network threats than any other global region. This region has twice the number of malicious flagged queries in the second half of 2022 compared to North America– the region with the second flagged queries.&nbsp;More than 350 million queries in APAC were found to be related to Pykspa, an info-stealing worm that spreads through Skype by sending malicious links to the affected users' contacts.

Businesses increasingly threatened by DNS attacks

With most internet usage facilitated via DNS, it has become an important part of the attack infrastructure due to its ubiquity. Akamai observes nearly seven trillion DNS requests daily and classifies malicious DNS transactions into three main categories: malware, phishing and command and control.

According to Akamai's data, between 10 percent and 16 percent of organizations globally encounter command and control (C2) traffic in their network in any given quarter. The presence of C2 traffic indicates the possibility of an attack in progress, or a breach, and threats range from information stealing botnets to Initial Access Brokers (IABs) who sell unauthorized access to breached networks to other cyber criminals.

In APAC, 15 percent of affected devices have reached out to known IAB C2 domains – such as Emotet – who conduct the initial breach before selling access to ransomware groups like Lockbit and other cybercriminal groups. The region also saw ransomware variants like Revil and Lockbit move into the top five types of C2 threats affecting devices across all organizations.&nbsp;

Network-attached storage devices are ripe for exploitation as they are less likely to be patched and they hold troves of valuable data. Akamai data shows almost 60 percent of affected devices in APAC were infected with Qsnatch - an infostealer malware targeting NAS devices - in 2022, making this region second only to&nbsp;North America&nbsp;in terms of number of infections. With a large concentration of data centers situated in APAC, as well as the popularity of NAS devices in the small and medium enterprises segment, these factors most likely increased the number of infections overall.

"As Asia Pacific continues to accelerate its evolution as a global hub for economic and digital transformation, it is thus no surprise that attackers continue to explore any way to attack enterprises for financial gain. Akamai's latest findings not only highlight the most prevalent attacks in each region, but also that multi-stage attacks have become a staple of the modern cyber landscape in our region. Threat Actors are finding increased success when they work together or when they can combine various tools in a single attack. A C2 infrastructure is pivotal in the success of these attacks as they can be used for communication as well as to facilitate downloading a payload and the next-stage malware to move the attack onward," explained&nbsp;Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology and Strategy, APJ at Akamai.

"It is crucial that organizations stay ahead of bad actors because of the detrimental impact that multi-stage attacks can have on their businesses. More than the immediate impacts of direct financial loss, and loss of customer confidence and trust, there is also the long-term costs to recover compromised infrastructure, such as legal, reimbursement and clean-up costs," he continued.

Homeowners to be on high alert for DNS Attacks&nbsp;

While attackers often have their sights on enterprises because it presents a bigger payoff when they successfully breach their networks, home users are often an easier and quicker target as their networks are not as secure as a corporate environment. Attackers are seeking to abuse not only traditional devices like computers, but also mobile phones and Internet of Things devices.

According to Akamai's data,&nbsp;APAC had the highest number of queries flagged in relation to the home network threats in the second half of 2022. The region had twice the number as compared to&nbsp;North America&nbsp;– the second most region with flagged queries.

In APAC, more than 350 million queries related to Pykspa were observed, a threat that spreads through Skype by sending malicious links to the affected users' contacts. Its&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=3503269146&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fwdsi%2Fthreats%2Fmalware-encyclopedia-description%3FName%3DWorm%253AWin32%252FPykspa.C&amp;a=backdoor+capabilities+allow+an+attacker" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">backdoor capabilities allow an attacker</a>&nbsp;to connect to a remote system and execute arbitrary commands such as download files, terminate processes, and propagate through various means, including mapped drives and network shares.

Phishing campaigns are also actively targeting financial brands in APAC to lure in unsuspecting consumer phishing victims. Akamai's research found that over 40% of all phishing campaigns were focused on financial services customers, resulting in close to 70% of all victims suffering from finance-related phishing scams and attacks. This clearly indicates that attacks against financial services and their customers were highly effective in 2022.

"Beyond the personal consequences that home users face of potentially losing all their data when their networks are compromised, there are far more insidious consequences if their devices become part of a massive botnet with attackers mobilizing zombie devices to perform cybercriminal activities without the user's knowledge, like spamming and even launching DDoS attacks against organizations," said&nbsp;Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology and Strategy, APJ at Akamai.

"It is unsurprising that we are seeing the rise of such attacks in our region, with&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;accounting for over 1.2 billion people accessing mobile internet services today1, and with IoT spending forecasted to reach&nbsp;$436 billion&nbsp;in 20262. The continuing increase in mobile and smart device use and adoption in the region is likely to foreshadow the increase in such attacks, which requires home users to be on high alert to avoid falling victim to cyberattacks," he continued.

Following analysis of the DNS landscape, Akamai shares the following guidance to business and home users:

- Remain proactive in ensuring optimal cyber hygiene practices for all your digital assets and users:

&nbsp; - Organizations should start by attaining visibility of all software and hardware assets and mapping out all critical vulnerabilities across every step of the organization's data journey and the controls required to do so, such as DDoS protection, malware attacks and scrapping as well as lateral movement and exfiltration.

&nbsp; - Best practices include keeping all systems and software up to date, implementing Anti-Malware and Multi-factor Authentication and enforcing least privileged access for users and devices at all times. For larger organizations or those requiring more complex requirements, engage a specialist provider for help, but remain proactive in monitoring performance and for anomalous events concurrently.

- Foster good security practices from home:

&nbsp; - Homeowners should take proactive steps in securing all their devices by ensuring software updates are done regularly, installing Anti-Malware software and by using WPA2 AES or WPA3 encryption for their home WIFI networks. They should also be on high alert for any potential suspicious websites, downloads and messages via email or text message.

Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. With the world's most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security, compute, and delivery solutions at&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=944107252&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=akamai.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=3554195176&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog&amp;a=akamai.com%2Fblog" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com/blog</a>, or follow Akamai Technologies on&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=451614558&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAkamai&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=2153431687&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fakamai-technologies%2F&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>.

<a href="mailto:akamaihub-sg@archetype.co" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamaihub-sg@archetype.co</a>&nbsp;

1&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=4142324499&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statista.com%2Fstatistics%2F201218%2Fforecast-of-mobile-internet-users-in-asia-pacific%2F&amp;a=statista" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">statista</a>2&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=1325865234&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.idc.com%2Fgetdoc.jsp%3FcontainerId%3DprAP49284322%23%3A%7E%3Atext%3DIDC%2520expects%2520Asia%252FPacific*%2520spending%2Cfor%2520the%2520period%25202021%252D2026.&amp;a=IDC" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">IDC</a>

<h1>QSnatch infections are the leading cause of malicious DNS traffic in Asia Pacific, according to latest findings by Akamai</h1>- QSnatch infections are currently the largest botnet threat in enterprise environments- Attacks could result in the take down of servers, data theft, and disruption of services- Globally, about 12 percent of organizations have showed signs of a breach the past year<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=3750060101&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=Akamai+Technologies%2C+Inc." target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Technologies, Inc.</a>&nbsp;(NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today announced a new State of the Internet report that focuses on the threats to businesses and consumers in&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;caused by malicious Domain Name System (DNS) traffic.Key findings from the&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;(APAC) report include:- QSnatch becomes largest APAC botnet threat: QSnatch - malware that specifically targets QNAP, a type of network attached storage (NAS) device used for backups or file storage by businesses – was by far the largest botnet threat in enterprise environments in APAC in 2022. Almost 60 percent of affected devices in APAC were infected with QSnatch, making this region second only to North America in terms of devices with QSnatch infections globally.&nbsp;- Rise of enterprise command and control traffic:&nbsp;Between 10 percent and 16 percent of organizations globally encounter command and control (C2) traffic in their network in any given quarter, indicating the possibility of an attack or breach in progress. In APAC, Akamai observed about 15 percent of affected devices reaching out to Initial Access Brokers (IABs) domains.&nbsp;These are cyber-criminal gangs who sell unauthorized access to breached networks to other cyber criminals, such as ransomware groups.&nbsp;- APAC suffers highest home network threats globally:&nbsp;APAC recorded far higher consumer home network threats than any other global region. This region has twice the number of malicious flagged queries in the second half of 2022 compared to North America– the region with the second flagged queries.&nbsp;More than 350 million queries in APAC were found to be related to Pykspa, an info-stealing worm that spreads through Skype by sending malicious links to the affected users' contacts.Businesses increasingly threatened by DNS attacks With most internet usage facilitated via DNS, it has become an important part of the attack infrastructure due to its ubiquity. Akamai observes nearly seven trillion DNS requests daily and classifies malicious DNS transactions into three main categories: malware, phishing and command and control.According to Akamai's data, between 10 percent and 16 percent of organizations globally encounter command and control (C2) traffic in their network in any given quarter. The presence of C2 traffic indicates the possibility of an attack in progress, or a breach, and threats range from information stealing botnets to Initial Access Brokers (IABs) who sell unauthorized access to breached networks to other cyber criminals.In APAC, 15 percent of affected devices have reached out to known IAB C2 domains – such as Emotet – who conduct the initial breach before selling access to ransomware groups like Lockbit and other cybercriminal groups. The region also saw ransomware variants like Revil and Lockbit move into the top five types of C2 threats affecting devices across all organizations.&nbsp;Network-attached storage devices are ripe for exploitation as they are less likely to be patched and they hold troves of valuable data. Akamai data shows almost 60 percent of affected devices in APAC were infected with Qsnatch - an infostealer malware targeting NAS devices - in 2022, making this region second only to&nbsp;North America&nbsp;in terms of number of infections. With a large concentration of data centers situated in APAC, as well as the popularity of NAS devices in the small and medium enterprises segment, these factors most likely increased the number of infections overall."As Asia Pacific continues to accelerate its evolution as a global hub for economic and digital transformation, it is thus no surprise that attackers continue to explore any way to attack enterprises for financial gain. Akamai's latest findings not only highlight the most prevalent attacks in each region, but also that multi-stage attacks have become a staple of the modern cyber landscape in our region. Threat Actors are finding increased success when they work together or when they can combine various tools in a single attack. A C2 infrastructure is pivotal in the success of these attacks as they can be used for communication as well as to facilitate downloading a payload and the next-stage malware to move the attack onward," explained&nbsp;Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology and Strategy, APJ at Akamai."It is crucial that organizations stay ahead of bad actors because of the detrimental impact that multi-stage attacks can have on their businesses. More than the immediate impacts of direct financial loss, and loss of customer confidence and trust, there is also the long-term costs to recover compromised infrastructure, such as legal, reimbursement and clean-up costs," he continued.Homeowners to be on high alert for DNS Attacks&nbsp;While attackers often have their sights on enterprises because it presents a bigger payoff when they successfully breach their networks, home users are often an easier and quicker target as their networks are not as secure as a corporate environment. Attackers are seeking to abuse not only traditional devices like computers, but also mobile phones and Internet of Things devices.According to Akamai's data,&nbsp;APAC had the highest number of queries flagged in relation to the home network threats in the second half of 2022. The region had twice the number as compared to&nbsp;North America&nbsp;– the second most region with flagged queries.In APAC, more than 350 million queries related to Pykspa were observed, a threat that spreads through Skype by sending malicious links to the affected users' contacts. Its&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=3503269146&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fwdsi%2Fthreats%2Fmalware-encyclopedia-description%3FName%3DWorm%253AWin32%252FPykspa.C&amp;a=backdoor+capabilities+allow+an+attacker" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">backdoor capabilities allow an attacker</a>&nbsp;to connect to a remote system and execute arbitrary commands such as download files, terminate processes, and propagate through various means, including mapped drives and network shares.Phishing campaigns are also actively targeting financial brands in APAC to lure in unsuspecting consumer phishing victims. Akamai's research found that over 40% of all phishing campaigns were focused on financial services customers, resulting in close to 70% of all victims suffering from finance-related phishing scams and attacks. This clearly indicates that attacks against financial services and their customers were highly effective in 2022."Beyond the personal consequences that home users face of potentially losing all their data when their networks are compromised, there are far more insidious consequences if their devices become part of a massive botnet with attackers mobilizing zombie devices to perform cybercriminal activities without the user's knowledge, like spamming and even launching DDoS attacks against organizations," said&nbsp;Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology and Strategy, APJ at Akamai."It is unsurprising that we are seeing the rise of such attacks in our region, with&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;accounting for over 1.2 billion people accessing mobile internet services today1, and with IoT spending forecasted to reach&nbsp;$436 billion&nbsp;in 20262. The continuing increase in mobile and smart device use and adoption in the region is likely to foreshadow the increase in such attacks, which requires home users to be on high alert to avoid falling victim to cyberattacks," he continued.Advice to business and home usersFollowing analysis of the DNS landscape, Akamai shares the following guidance to business and home users:- Remain proactive in ensuring optimal cyber hygiene practices for all your digital assets and users:&nbsp; - Organizations should start by attaining visibility of all software and hardware assets and mapping out all critical vulnerabilities across every step of the organization's data journey and the controls required to do so, such as DDoS protection, malware attacks and scrapping as well as lateral movement and exfiltration.&nbsp; - Best practices include keeping all systems and software up to date, implementing Anti-Malware and Multi-factor Authentication and enforcing least privileged access for users and devices at all times. For larger organizations or those requiring more complex requirements, engage a specialist provider for help, but remain proactive in monitoring performance and for anomalous events concurrently.- Foster good security practices from home:&nbsp; - Homeowners should take proactive steps in securing all their devices by ensuring software updates are done regularly, installing Anti-Malware software and by using WPA2 AES or WPA3 encryption for their home WIFI networks. They should also be on high alert for any potential suspicious websites, downloads and messages via email or text message.About AkamaiAkamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. With the world's most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security, compute, and delivery solutions at&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=944107252&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=akamai.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=3554195176&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog&amp;a=akamai.com%2Fblog" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com/blog</a>, or follow Akamai Technologies on&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=451614558&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAkamai&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=2153431687&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fakamai-technologies%2F&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>.ContactsGary Ng/Amanda SngArchetype&nbsp;Singapore<a href="mailto:akamaihub-sg@archetype.co" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamaihub-sg@archetype.co</a>&nbsp;1&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=4142324499&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statista.com%2Fstatistics%2F201218%2Fforecast-of-mobile-internet-users-in-asia-pacific%2F&amp;a=statista" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">statista</a>2&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3820163-1&amp;h=1325865234&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.idc.com%2Fgetdoc.jsp%3FcontainerId%3DprAP49284322%23%3A%7E%3Atext%3DIDC%2520expects%2520Asia%252FPacific*%2520spending%2Cfor%2520the%2520period%25202021%252D2026.&amp;a=IDC" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">IDC</a>

QSnatch infections are the leading cause of malicious DNS traffic in Asia Pacific, according to latest findings by Akamai

SINGAPORE,&nbsp;March 17, 2023-&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=3866580207&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3728849-1%26h%3D190363570%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.akamai.com%252F%26a%3DAkamai%2BTechnologies%252C%2BInc&amp;a=Akamai+Technologies%2C+Inc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Technologies, Inc</a><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=672999714&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3728849-1%26h%3D1850517555%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.akamai.com%252F%26a%3D.&amp;a=." target="_blank" rel="nofollow">.</a>&nbsp;(NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, revealed that Akamai mitigated the largest&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=1525289579&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Four-thinking%2Fddos&amp;a=DDoS+attack" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">DDoS attack</a>&nbsp;ever launched against a customer based in&nbsp;Asia. In a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, an attacker overwhelms its target with unwanted internet traffic so that normal traffic cannot reach its intended destination.

Fig. 1: The attack was intense and short-lived, and was fully pre-mitigated

On&nbsp;February 23, 2023, Akamai mitigated the attack which recorded traffic peaking at 900.1&nbsp;gigabits per second and 158.2 million packets per second. The attack was intense and short-lived, with most attack traffic bursting during the peak minute of the attack. Traffic patterns returned to normal after only a few minutes (Figure 1).

The attack was distributed across Akamai's scrubbing network, with all 26 of Akamai's&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=2725458216&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog%2Fnews%2Fakamais-prolexic-launches-sixth-generation-ddos-platform-upgrade&amp;a=fleet+of+scrubbing+centers" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">fleet of scrubbing centers</a>&nbsp;witnessing some amount of attack traffic. However, this was most heavily sourced from APAC (Figure 2), with the top locations being&nbsp;Hong Kong,&nbsp;Tokyo, São Paulo,&nbsp;Singapore, and&nbsp;Osaka, and forty-eight percent of traffic in-region.

To thwart the attack and safeguard the customer,&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=2216829243&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fresources%2Fproduct-brief%2Fprolexic&amp;a=Akamai+Prolexic" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Prolexic</a>, a cloud-based DDoS scrubbing platform, was deployed to pre-mitigate the assault. The dedicated defense platform, that scales to several times the size of the largest publicly reported attacks, was deployed after an optimized DDoS incident response plan was launched by frontline responders. Over 225 frontline responders across six global locations with decades of expertise mitigating the most sophisticated attacks for the world's largest, most-demanding organizations, were involved to stop the attack. As a result of the proactive defense posture, there was no collateral damage for the customer.

"The recent DDoS attack that Akamai mitigated in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;serves as an important reminder that DDoS continues to be a pervasive threat that organizations here need to pay attention to. DDoS attacks continue to ramp up in the region because virtually every business is an online business today," explained&nbsp;Parimal Pandya, Managing Director,&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;and&nbsp;Japan, Akamai.

"Customer experiences online are negatively impacted when a DDoS attack renders a site inaccessible, and connection is compromised. This inaccessibility jeopardizes consumer trust, and consistent disruptions will see them turning to alternative avenues instead," continued Pandya.

In the wake of heightened operational risk, having a proven DDoS mitigation strategy is imperative for online businesses to thrive. To stay ahead of the latest threats, Akamai recommends the following:

Immediately review and implement cybersecurity recommendations and guidelines by the local government Review critical subnets and IP spaces and ensure that they have mitigation controls in place Deploy DDoS security controls in an always-on mitigation posture as a first layer of defense to avoid an emergency integration scenario and to reduce the burden on incident responders. Organizations without a trusted and proven cloud-based provider are advised to start their search for one. Proactively pull together a crisis response team and ensure incident response plans are up-to-date, including go-to contacts, and a runbook is available to provide guidance on procedures and operations that needs to be carried out in the event of a cyberattack.

"DDoS attacks have increased consistently in APAC, both in size and frequency, over the past couple of years and have become a serious threat to business growth and stability. As organizations across all verticals conduct their business online, attackers seek to disrupt and degrade customer experience and the reputation of these businesses for financial gain," said&nbsp;Dean Houari, Director of Security Technology and Strategy,&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;and&nbsp;Japan, Akamai.

"Specifically, cybercriminals continue to deploy DDoS as part of multi-faceted attacks to divert customer attention from data breaches and ransomware, or to coerce ransom payments. Thus, it is critical that organizations adopt the right DDoS security solution to detect and mitigate attacks at scale, while having the right teams to monitor such attacks, as suggested in the guidance on minimizing DDoS risks," he concluded.

Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. With the world's most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security, compute, and delivery solutions at&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=242790529&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=akamai.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=3857049757&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog&amp;a=akamai.com%2Fblog" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com/blog</a>, or follow Akamai Technologies on&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=752240939&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAkamai&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=3060243698&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fakamai-technologies%2F&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>.

Fig. 2: The attack was distributed across Akamai’s scrubbing network, but was most heavily sourced from APAC

<h1>Akamai Mitigates Record DDoS Attack in Asia-Pacific (900 Gbps)</h1>SINGAPORE,&nbsp;March 17, 2023-&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=3866580207&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3728849-1%26h%3D190363570%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.akamai.com%252F%26a%3DAkamai%2BTechnologies%252C%2BInc&amp;a=Akamai+Technologies%2C+Inc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Technologies, Inc</a><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=672999714&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3728849-1%26h%3D1850517555%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.akamai.com%252F%26a%3D.&amp;a=." target="_blank" rel="nofollow">.</a>&nbsp;(NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, revealed that Akamai mitigated the largest&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=1525289579&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Four-thinking%2Fddos&amp;a=DDoS+attack" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">DDoS attack</a>&nbsp;ever launched against a customer based in&nbsp;Asia. In a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, an attacker overwhelms its target with unwanted internet traffic so that normal traffic cannot reach its intended destination.Fig. 1: The attack was intense and short-lived, and was fully pre-mitigatedOn&nbsp;February 23, 2023, Akamai mitigated the attack which recorded traffic peaking at 900.1&nbsp;gigabits per second and 158.2 million packets per second. The attack was intense and short-lived, with most attack traffic bursting during the peak minute of the attack. Traffic patterns returned to normal after only a few minutes (Figure 1).The attack was distributed across Akamai's scrubbing network, with all 26 of Akamai's&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=2725458216&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog%2Fnews%2Fakamais-prolexic-launches-sixth-generation-ddos-platform-upgrade&amp;a=fleet+of+scrubbing+centers" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">fleet of scrubbing centers</a>&nbsp;witnessing some amount of attack traffic. However, this was most heavily sourced from APAC (Figure 2), with the top locations being&nbsp;Hong Kong,&nbsp;Tokyo, São Paulo,&nbsp;Singapore, and&nbsp;Osaka, and forty-eight percent of traffic in-region.Mitigation strategyTo thwart the attack and safeguard the customer,&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=2216829243&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fresources%2Fproduct-brief%2Fprolexic&amp;a=Akamai+Prolexic" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Akamai Prolexic</a>, a cloud-based DDoS scrubbing platform, was deployed to pre-mitigate the assault. The dedicated defense platform, that scales to several times the size of the largest publicly reported attacks, was deployed after an optimized DDoS incident response plan was launched by frontline responders. Over 225 frontline responders across six global locations with decades of expertise mitigating the most sophisticated attacks for the world's largest, most-demanding organizations, were involved to stop the attack. As a result of the proactive defense posture, there was no collateral damage for the customer."The recent DDoS attack that Akamai mitigated in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;serves as an important reminder that DDoS continues to be a pervasive threat that organizations here need to pay attention to. DDoS attacks continue to ramp up in the region because virtually every business is an online business today," explained&nbsp;Parimal Pandya, Managing Director,&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;and&nbsp;Japan, Akamai."Customer experiences online are negatively impacted when a DDoS attack renders a site inaccessible, and connection is compromised. This inaccessibility jeopardizes consumer trust, and consistent disruptions will see them turning to alternative avenues instead," continued Pandya.Guidance on minimizing DDoS riskIn the wake of heightened operational risk, having a proven DDoS mitigation strategy is imperative for online businesses to thrive. To stay ahead of the latest threats, Akamai recommends the following:Immediately review and implement cybersecurity recommendations and guidelines by the local government Review critical subnets and IP spaces and ensure that they have mitigation controls in place Deploy DDoS security controls in an always-on mitigation posture as a first layer of defense to avoid an emergency integration scenario and to reduce the burden on incident responders. Organizations without a trusted and proven cloud-based provider are advised to start their search for one. Proactively pull together a crisis response team and ensure incident response plans are up-to-date, including go-to contacts, and a runbook is available to provide guidance on procedures and operations that needs to be carried out in the event of a cyberattack."DDoS attacks have increased consistently in APAC, both in size and frequency, over the past couple of years and have become a serious threat to business growth and stability. As organizations across all verticals conduct their business online, attackers seek to disrupt and degrade customer experience and the reputation of these businesses for financial gain," said&nbsp;Dean Houari, Director of Security Technology and Strategy,&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;and&nbsp;Japan, Akamai."Specifically, cybercriminals continue to deploy DDoS as part of multi-faceted attacks to divert customer attention from data breaches and ransomware, or to coerce ransom payments. Thus, it is critical that organizations adopt the right DDoS security solution to detect and mitigate attacks at scale, while having the right teams to monitor such attacks, as suggested in the guidance on minimizing DDoS risks," he concluded.About AkamaiAkamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. With the world's most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security, compute, and delivery solutions at&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=242790529&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2F&amp;a=akamai.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=3857049757&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.akamai.com%2Fblog&amp;a=akamai.com%2Fblog" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">akamai.com/blog</a>, or follow Akamai Technologies on&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=752240939&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAkamai&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3812915-1&amp;h=3060243698&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fakamai-technologies%2F&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>.<img style="max-width:100%;height:auto;" src="https://vritimes-public.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/production/Figure2_Infographic.jpg" alt="Image"/>Fig. 2: The attack was distributed across Akamai’s scrubbing network, but was most heavily sourced from APACSource: Akamai Technologies, Inc.