Iran war triggers cybercrime surge, report finds

Cybercriminal activity aimed at North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific has spiked by 245% since the Iran war broke out at the end of February, with botnet-driven discovery traffic recording the highest increase at 70%, followed by automated reconnaissance traffic and widespread scanning of exposed infrastructure, reports The Register.

Most of the attacks have been aimed at banking and fintech organizations, followed by e-commerce, game development, and technology firms, according to a report from Akamai. Additional findings showed that Iran only accounted for 14% of IP addresses leveraged in cyberattacks, which was behind both Russia and China. However, such figures suggest that attackers may only be co-opting Chinese and Russian digital crime infrastructure due to their more lax regulations. "Geopolitically motivated hacktivists are using proxy services in countries like Russia and China as a source for billions of designed-for-abuse connection attempts," said Akamai. Akamai's report comes weeks after Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 senior manager Justin Moore detailed the intensification of pro-Russian hacktivist intrusions that has expanded the Middle East's attack surface.

Written by

Kelley Damore Chief Content Officer CyberRisk Alliance

Kelley Damore is Chief Content Officer at CyberRisk Alliance, where she leads content strategy across the company’s digital brands, research, communities and live events serving CISOs and security practitioners. At CyberRisk Alliance, she is focused on delivering 365-day engagement, trusted journalism and actionable insights to help security leaders navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape.