Botnets Continue to 'Evolve,' Akamai Reports

Some cyberattacks are on the rise, Akamai reported Tuesday, with the U.S. the top source country for web applications attacks, showing an increase of 57 percent in Q1 year over year. Risks to the internet and to certain sectors "continue to evolve," said Martin McKeay, senior security advocate. "Use cases for botnets like Mirai have continued to advance and change, with attackers increasingly integrating Internet of Things vulnerabilities into the fabric of DDoS botnets and malware. It’s short sighted to think of Mirai as the only threat," he said of the distributed denial-of-service attack. Botnet families like BillGates, elknot and XOR are "mutating," he added.