Asia Pacific And Japan See 51bn Web Attacks In 2024, Driven By Ai Use

The Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region knowledgeable a 73% year-on-year emergence successful web exertion attacks successful 2024, according to a caller study from cybersecurity patient Akamai Technologies. The surge, elaborate successful Akamai’s latest State of nan Internet (SOTI) report, is being attributed to nan accelerated take of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which are expanding nan onslaught aboveground and expanding nan sophistication of cyber threats.

The report, titled "State of Apps and API Security 2025: How AI Is Shifting nan Digital Terrain", reveals that nan region saw 51 cardinal web exertion attacks past year, up from 29 cardinal successful 2023. Australia, India, and Singapore emerged arsenic nan astir targeted countries, pinch 20.3 billion, 17.3 billion, and 15.9 cardinal attacks respectively.

The financial services and commerce sectors were nan astir affected, accounting for complete 27 cardinal and 18 cardinal attacks respectively. The world image was likewise concerning, pinch 311 cardinal web exertion attacks recorded worldwide successful 2024, a 33% summation compared to nan erstwhile year.

One cardinal attraction of nan study is nan vulnerability of exertion programming interfaces (APIs), which are progressively utilized to merge AI devices pinch business platforms. Between January 2023 and December 2024, Akamai observed 150 cardinal world API attacks, galore of which exploited anemic authentication and automation-friendly introduction points. The study identifies AI-powered APIs arsenic especially at consequence owed to their outer vulnerability and often insufficient information controls.

In summation to web exertion threats, nan APJ region saw a crisp emergence successful Layer 7 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, pinch volumes expanding by 66% year-over-year. The region was nan 2nd astir targeted globally, reaching a highest of 504 cardinal attacks successful December 2024. Singapore recorded nan highest number wrong APJ, facing 4.7 trillion attacks complete 2 years, followed by India (1.1 trillion) and South Korea (607 billion).

Globally, Layer 7 DDoS attacks surged by 94%, totalling 7 trillion attacks successful 2024. HTTP floods remained nan ascendant threat vector, peculiarly impacting high-tech companies and integer media platforms.

Additional findings successful nan study highlight:

• Over 230 cardinal web attacks were directed astatine commerce organisations globally, making it nan astir targeted industry.
• Incidents related to nan OWASP API Top 10 roseate by 32%, indicating ongoing issues pinch authentication and authorisation flaws.
• Security alerts linked to nan MITRE ATT&CK model accrued by 30%, reflecting greater usage of automation and AI by malicious actors.
• Shadow and zombie APIs were identified arsenic peculiarly susceptible wrong analyzable integer ecosystems.

Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology and Strategy astatine Akamai Technologies APJ, stated that nan emergence successful attacks underscores nan urgent request for much adaptive information strategies. "As threat actors escalate their attacks successful some standard and sophistication, information strategies must frankincense accommodate accordingly," he said.

Governments crossed nan region are responding pinch heightened regulatory oversight. Singapore has expanded its cybersecurity legislation, Japan has updated its nationalist cybersecurity strategy, and Australia passed nan Cybersecurity Act 2024. India’s implementation of nan Digital Personal Data Protection Bill besides reflects a broader move towards stricter compliance requirements.

With enforcement deadlines approaching, Akamai advises organisations to adopt proactive measures specified arsenic shift-left information approaches, enhanced API governance, and AI-based defences to mitigate evolving threats.

The SOTI study series, now successful its 11th year, leverages information from Akamai’s infrastructure, which processes complete a 3rd of world web traffic, to connection insights into cybersecurity trends and risks.