Media Industry Suffer Huge Increase in Cyber-Attacks

The media industry is increasingly under the threat of cyberattacks. It suffered 17 billion credential stuffing attacks over the past two years. According to research by Akamai, the media industry has witnessed 20% of the 88 billion cyberattacks during the time period, January 2018 – December 2019. 

The research also recorded a 208% and 630% increase in cyberattacks every year against the broadcast TV and video sites. Akamai security researcher and author of the State of the Internet/Security report, Steve Ragan, said, “As long as we have usernames and passwords, we’re going to have criminals trying to compromise them and exploit valuable information.”

“Password sharing and recycling are easily the two largest contributing factors in credential stuffing attacks. While educating consumers on good credential hygiene is critical to combating these attacks, it’s up to businesses to deploy stronger authentication methods and identify the right mix of technology, policies, and expertise that can help protect customers without adversely impacting the user experience.”

Other than video sites, a 7000% increase in cyber attacks is estimated in the publishing content such as books, newspapers, and magazines.

A threat research team lead at Digital Shadows, Alex Guirakhoo said in an email to infosecurity that the credentials for music and video streaming services are increasing in demand and he had seen these accounts comprise 13% of listings and 25% surpassed by financial accounts. 

He said, 

“Attackers can obtain these accounts cheaply and efficiently using credential stuffing tools, which prey on password reuse. Individual streaming accounts can be purchased for an average of under $10. These accounts are also frequently traded for free on cyber-criminal forums like XSS and RaidForums, likely to help build a sense of community among forum users.”