Cybercriminals Capitalizing on Travel Industry’s Peak Season

27.08.2024 - 22:51 / travelpulse.com / North America / Donald Wood

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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