Akamai Identifies SEO Web Application Attack Campaign

Akamai Technologies issued a new Web security threat advisory from the company’s Threat Research Division. Threat Research has identified a sophisticated search engine optimization (SEO) campaign that uses SQL injections to attack targeted websites. Affected websites will distribute hidden Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) links that confuse search engine bots and erroneously impact page rankings. A full report detailing the attack is available for download here http://www.stateoftheinternet.com/seo-attacks

Over the course of a two week period in Q3 2015, Threat Research analyzed data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform and observed attacks on more than 3,800 websites and 348 unique IP addresses participating in the various campaigns, revealing the following key findings:

· Evidence of mass defacement – when searching the Internet for the HTML links that were used as part of this campaign, Threat Research identified hundreds of web applications containing these malicious links.

· Attacks manipulated search engine results – when searching for a combination of common words such as “cheat” and “story”, it was apparent that the “cheating stories” application appeared on the first page of the leading search engines.
· Analytics showcased impact of attacks– Threat Research looked at Alexa analytics and the ranking of the “cheating stories” application dramatically increased during the three month span.

Search engines use specific algorithms to determine page rankings and indexing for sites on the web, and the number and reputation of links that redirect to the web application influence these rankings. The SEO attackers created a chain of external links that direct to stories of cheating and infidelity on the web to mimic normal web content and impact search engine algorithms.

“The ability to manipulate page rankings is an enticing proposition and business for attackers,” said Stuart Scholly, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Security Business Unit, Akamai. “If successful, attacks can impact revenue and, most importantly, the reputation of many organizations and companies using the Internet.”