by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Tue August 27, 2024
A new study found that cybercriminals are capitalizing on
the travel and hospitality industry's peak season by using increased traffic to
mask attacks.
According to API security and bot management pioneer Cequence,
threat researchers found that increased website traffic during peak
seasons—like the travel and hospitality industry’s vacation and holiday
periods—coincides with a cyberattack surge.
Data also showed that domain name system (DNS) and
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack data provided by Vercara (now part
of Digitcert) supports this finding, as “both increased queries and attacks
correlate with periods of heightened online activity.”
“Travelers are at risk during peak vacation times, with
cybercriminals seizing the opportunity to strike,” Cequence Director of Threat
Research William Glazier said. “Our research highlights severe threats,
including financial loss, identity theft, and disrupted travel for consumers,
and reputational damage and legal issues for businesses.”
“Frequent attacks can undermine consumer trust in digital
platforms,” Glazier continued. “To mitigate these risks, organizations need to
prioritize API security, while travelers should stay vigilant and practice
robust cybersecurity.”
The travel industry is particularly susceptible, as the
study found all 10 top travel and hospitality companies had serious,
public-facing vulnerabilities. Four companies had 91 percent of serious
vulnerabilities, most of which would allow a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack,
enabling hackers to intercept and manipulate communications.
To combat these efforts, organizations must prioritize
strengthening their API security, adopt proactive measures to mitigate these
risks, and deploy protection against manual and automated AI attacks.
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