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Content delivery network & Cloud service provider Akamai has released the 2019 State of the Internet / Security Web Attacks and Gaming Abuse Report.
In it, it has revealed that hackers had targeted the gaming industry by carrying out 12 billion “credential stuffing attacks against gaming Websites” within the 17-month period analyzed in the report (November 2017 – March 2019).
Which means hackers find the gaming community as the most lucrative targets. During the same time period, Akamai saw a total of 55 billion credential stuffing attacks across all industries.
The report also revealed that SQL Injection (SQLi) attacks now represented nearly two-thirds (65.1%) of all Web application attacks. Local File Inclusion (LFI) attacks made up 24.7%.
SQLi attacks had continued to grow at an alarming rate as an attack vector, with a spike in activity during the 2018 holiday shopping season & a continued elevated trend since that time. In the first quarter of 2017, SQLi attacks accounted for 44% of all application layer attacks.
The majority of the credential stuffing lists circulating on the darknet & on various forums use data that originated from some of the world’s largest data breaches, & many of them have SQLi as a root cause.
In fact, earlier this year Akamai researchers discovered a video where viewers were instructed on how to conduct SQLi attacks against vulnerable Websites, & then use the credentials obtained to generate lists that can be leveraged in credential stuffing attacks against a popular Online game.
“One reason that we believe the gaming industry is an attractive target for hackers is because criminals can easily exchange in-game items for profit,” said Martin McKeay, Security Researcher at Akamai & Editorial Director of the State of the Internet / Security Report. “Furthermore, gamers are a niche demographic known for spending money, so their financial status is also a tempting target.”
“While gaming companies continue to innovate and improve their defenses, these organizations must also continue to help educate their consumers on how to protect and defend themselves,” said McKeay, in a written statement. “Many gamers are young, & if they are taught best practices to safeguard their accounts, they will incorporate those best practices for the rest of their lives.”
