Ads | Marketing

🔎 Major Findings Across Sectors

• Top CashBack was the standout performer in the sector, presumably because of its focus on transactions with its cash back service.

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• Major brands marketing brands had serious failings with cybersecurity defences, making them wide-open to automated traffic and other bots. Content bots are widespread in the industry, creating huge volumes of click-fraud, fake advertising and direct response, and distorting analytics.

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• More serious failings included lack of protection for logins and  exposure to account take-over which would gain access to the account, along with its PII and customer data.

⚠️ Threats & Weaknesses

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• The weaker services mostly showed exposure to account take-over attacks, which could lead to a major breach and compromised accounts

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• On the worst performing domains, automated bots were able to scan, map, and interact with authentication services without encountering rate limits, anomaly detection, or session validation controls. Infiltration rates reached up to 95% on some domains, confirming a near-total absence of active defensive interception.

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• In many sites no behavioural response to bot-generated input or repeated access attempts was detected. Although all sites had Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) deployed, our simulations were able to complete reconnaissance and interaction phases without challenge - highlighting the limitations of legacy, perimeter-centric defence strategies.

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🔓 Unlocking Results

VerifiedThreat assessments highlight which organisations:

• ✅ Have robust, resilient defences
  
  
• ⚠️ Are at risk of automation and bot-based exploitation
  
  
• 🚨 Face critical vulnerabilities if left unchecked
  
  

💡 Why This Matters

Understanding sector dynamics allows businesses to:

• Benchmark against industry peers
  
  
• Prioritise investment in external defence
  
  
• Strengthen customer trust by closing exposure gaps

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