Financial services sees sharp increase in DDoS attacks as geopolitical tensions rise

DDoS attacks against the financial services sector historically accounted for about 10-15% of all attacks, however that trend began to rise in 2021, the FS-ISAC and Akamai found. “Financial services companies are prime targets because successfully disrupting operations, for even just a moment, can lead to severe reputational risks and distrust in the global financial system,” Teresa Walsh, chief intelligence officer and managing director, EMEA, at FS-ISAC, said via email.

Akamai in September said it prevented a DDoS attack on a major U.S. financial institution. The attack peaked at 633.7 gigabits per second and 55 million packets per second. The increased activity was driven in large part by hacktivist groups using DDoS as a tool to disrupt institutions at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.

U.S. authorities in July warned that threat groups were potentially targeting multiple sectors using DDoS capabilities, including one group which claimed to have targeted the Treasury Department’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. By October, security researchers warned a novel zero day vulnerability, known as HTTP/2 Rapid Reset, was being used to launch some of the most powerful DDoS attacks ever recorded.  

Cybersecurity Dive​ 03/07/2024