Hackers Reported Shifting Focus to Web Ports

Akamai Technologies, Inc. has released its Second Quarter, 2013 State of the Internet Report. The reports details things like Global Internet penetration and Broadband adoption, mobile connectivity, and security attack traffic.

You can download the full report from here: The State of the Internet Report

But, one of the more interesting and concerning statistics released in the report talks to a change in how hackers are attempting to attack unsuspecting Internet users. The most common attack port since Akamai started reporting in 2008, Port 445 (Microsoft-DS), has now taken 3^rd place behind Port 443 and Port 80.

Introduced in Windows 2000, Port 445 is an implementation for file sharing, allowing hackers to deliver malicious content to unprotected and unpatched computers. If a computer is up-to-date and secure, it's not an issue. However, since more and more people are using the Internet mobile devices, the only recourse for hackers is to use the most common ports available. Port 443 services secure Internet connections (HTTPS) and Port 80 is the common port for general web access (WWW - HTTP).

Recently, we posted a survey to get a better understanding about security and smartphones. The results so far show that the majority of respondents (64%) have not yet even thought about running antimalware software on mobile devices. Based on the shift in port hacking that Akamai has reported, this could lead to a nasty security scenario since the majority of mobile Cloud services utilize ports 443 and 80. You can still participate in the mobile malware security survey here:  Is that Malware in Your Pocket, or are you just…?

Also in the report, Enterprises remain the biggest target for DDoS attacks and attacks since the 2013 second quarter report has seen a 54 percent increase.