In the latest statistical analysis of the Botscout.com web bot attacks, the United States now leads over Russia, the Ukraine and China as the number one origin point for attacking web bots.
The majority of web bots attempt to infiltrate through email attacks.
However, a growing number of bots are also responsible for attacking dynamic websites, using a slow but overt brute force attacks against passwords.
In many cases these attacks against websites occur by repeatedly attempting logins each hour.
It is relatively easy to determine if your business website is under attack when you identify a specific IP range attempting to access only one single page (your login page) on the website over a period of days.
Thwart attacks against your business website
Dealing with these types of attacks includes a three fold approach:
1. IDENTIFY ORIGIN OF PERPETRATORS
Review your web logs daily to identify hack attacks and their IP address range. Use tools like these to identify where the origin point and who owns the IP:
http://www.ip2location.com/free.asp
2. BAN BAD IPS FROM CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Within your website Content Management System, use the Ban or Block security option to stop immediately any further attempts at hacking the login. If you do not use a CMS for your website, move on to next item.
3. ENSURE YOU HAVE A ROBOTS.TXT FILE
Create a robots.txt file and include any overt robots which your web logs indicate are attacking. Also ensure you deny ALL robots from your /login page (use your actual properly formed URL) such as:
User-agent: * Disallow: /login Disallow: /wusage
4. MORE AGGRESSIVE SECURITY - IP RANGE BLOCKING
Within your web server's main http be sure to include a .htaccess file. You can get details with regard to this on the internet. But a simple .htaccess file would include the following:
order allow,deny deny from 62.29.0.0/17 allow from all
To determine the IP range, use tools like this:
http://www.ipdeny.com/ipblocks/
Some websites have ended up blocking entire nations due to their beligerant laws regarding internet security. However, you risk blocking readers/users of your website, so a cautious phased approach should be taken when blocking IPs.
Utilising these four key ingredients, most business websites can address the increasing web attacks.
Finally, it is always essential to ensure client data is never divulged on the internet, and any business that gathers or uses client data should spend the time and money to protect it using SSL and other forms of encryption.
