Poll – Does Cross Border and Geopolitical tensions increase DDoS attacks, Website/Web Applications attacks, Website Defacements?

The overwhelming response we received was – “Yes” with 94%. When the majority say “Yes”, it is time to pause and reflect.  

Geopolitical tensions trigger increase in Cyber Attacks

In recent times we have heard more news on the geopolitical tensions increasing the cyber-attacks due to conflicts, differences of opinion or due to certain specific incidents. Globally, the impact of geopolitical tensions is seen as a trigger for the increase in cyber-attacks in many countries, including India.

Website attack gains instant visibility

When we look at the type of attacks which increases due to Geopolitical tensions, the type of attack which gets instant visibility is the attacks on the Website/Web applications. Let’s look at what makes website and web applications an easy target for threat actors.

Cyber Attacks in India 

India witnessed a significant growth in the cyber-attacks including websites/ web applications with a total incident of all cyber-attacks reported in India in 2021 were 1,402,809, including Phishing, Unauthorized Network Scanning, Virus incidents, website intrusion and others.

CERT-In has reported the number of website/web applications attacks in 2018 at 17,560 and this increased to 27,408 in 2021, a  56% increase on the attacks on website / web applications. Additionally, there was a 10-fold increase in website intrusion and malware propagation on Indian websites in 2021 compared to the year 2020.

Websites/Web Applications with vulnerabilities are easier targets

Websites and Web Applications exposed to the public Internet allowing anyone with an internet connection to access any website with a simple web browser. Exposure of web applications not only allows targeted attacks, but also malicious bots and other scanners to check if the web application is affected by any specific vulnerability which can be exploited.

Website/Web Applications can be Water hole attacks

A website/web application with vulnerabilities which can be exploited can be considered a golden door, since the attackers not only gain access to the company resources, they can also compromise the users of the website by propagating malware through the websites. This type of attacks can be said as water hole attacks, which attackers distribute malware through compromised websites.

Website/Web Applications attack has cost implications

Every website / web applications attack regardless of the type of attack has a cost implication on the organization like,

• Brand Reputation loss
• Organization data loss
• Disruption of business  – Website/Web Application downtime leading to Financial and Productivity Loss 
• Business Continuity Impact
• Attack recovery cost
• Legal liabilities

These attacks have a severe cost impact on the organization business for a substantial period of time, which can be in months. 

Why Website Security?

Many organizations Website/Web Applications are vulnerable to attacks and Website/Web Application security is very important defense for all organizations digital assets. Protecting against these attacks is crucial and an important aspect is the right security measure like Web Application Firewall which can help protect attacks on web applications which traditional and Next Generation firewalls do not provide.

SiteWALL protects Website/Web Applications

SiteWALL with its multi-layer protection capability, can detect and prevent attacks on your websites and web applications. SiteWALL WAF provides extremely fine-grained attack detection and analysis capabilities while protecting against the most common Web application threats including SQL injection attacks, Web page tampering, Web site malicious code, and disclosure of sensitive information.

SiteWALL with its defense-in-depth approach provides comprehensive protection against OWASP Top 10 threats, Layer 7 DDoS Attacks, Cross-Site Scripting, Real-time Scan prevention, Website Cloning, Virtual patching, Bot management including details analysis of all the attacks. SiteWALL WAF key differentiators are

• Web-Shell detection – SiteWALL detects Web-shell attacks on the website and web applications and prevents from advance attacks.
• Vulnerability Management – Helps track exposures and vulnerabilities till you mitigate the risk by patching the website
• Malware Scanning – Scans for Malware and virus for all inbound traffic including https traffic and file uploads.
• Defacement Monitoring – Website defacement monitoring offers hack detection and neutralizes all defacement to keep your business reputation intact.

SiteWALL Web Application Firewall keeps both website/web applications and users safe against these attacks. As long as the right security measure like SiteWALL WAF are deployed it is possible to protect the web assets, but any lack of measures in taking steps to protect the web assets could lead to a world to trouble. Better to protect than to regret.