Infiltration ‘should not be taken lightly’

Web application vulnerabilities grew by 212 percent in 2017, a global study showed.

Imperva Incapsula, a global website security company, saw a whopping 212 percent increase in new vulnerabilities last year, with 14,082 recorded vulnerabilities compared to 6,615 logged in 2016.

The study also revealed more than half of these have a public exploit available to hackers, and that more than a third don’t have available solutions.

IP-Converge Data Services Inc. (IPC), a distributed denial-of-service ( DDoS) mitigation services provider, is urging companies to beef up their web security following the rapid increase in web application vulnerabilities.

IPC is a unit of ePLDT and a global partner of Imperva.

Niño Valmonte, IPC’s director for marketing and digital innovation, explained that money is the main motivator in the rapid increase of web vulnerabilities.

“Websites are common targets because they can generate a substantial amount of money for cybercriminals. An e-commerce website would normally store personal information. Also, criminals can hold websites up for ransom from company owners,” said Valmonte, in a statement.

Ransomware, a method of putting up a website for ransom, is a global phenomenon that is predicted to exceed $11.5 billion annually by 2019. The most common form of payment sought from victims to get their websites back is the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

The study also revealed increasing vulnerabilities in content management systems (CMS). WordPress, one of the most commonly used CMS today, posted a 400 percent increase in new vulnerabilities since 2016, with 75 percent coming from third-party vendor plugins.

To protect one’s website, IPC suggests deploying security measures such as applying a web application firewall (WAF) that can monitor and control incoming web traffic. /