Cyber Siege: How DDoS Attacks Are Crippling Europe's Financial Services

<p>If you work
in the financial services industry, cyberattacks should become a serious
concern for you. A recent report by Akamai Technologies revealed a concerning
escalation in cyberattacks targeting the financial sector, especially in
Europe. </p><p><a href="https://www.akamai.com/lp/soti/high-stakes-of-innovation" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">The study</a>, entitled "The High Stakes of Innovation: Attack Trends in
Financial Services", shows that the industry has become the third-most
attacked in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, experiencing a
year-over-year increase of 119% in web application and API attacks. Unfortunately,
the industry takes the top spot when it comes to DDoS attacks.</p><p>Financial Companies Become
Prime Target for Cybercriminals</p><p>In the case
of attacks on web applications and APIs, the financial industry is ranked third,
accounting for over 16% of all attacks. The commerce sector lead with 34%,
followed by high technology at 22%.</p><p>However, a
significant increase in the number of attacks in the financial services
industry was observed in the 18-month reporting period from January 2022 to
June 2023. For example, there was a year-over-year increase of 65% in the number
of attacks on web applications and APIs between Q2 2022 and
Q2 2023.</p><p>When it
comes to web app and API attacks, fraudsters most often targeted banking (58%),
insurance (14%), and other financial services (28%). Banks are highly
vulnerable to network attacks due to the nature of the data they hold. </p><p>"As
cybercriminals continue to follow the money, financial services remains a
hugely attractive target. At the same, this is one of the most regulated
sectors and hence it is essential for companies to align their security
strategy with emerging laws and regulations," said Richard Meeus, the
Director of Security Technology and Strategy for EMEA at Akamai.</p><p>Speaking of
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which are still among the easiest
and most common, the financial industry is unfortunately attacked most
frequently. Nearly 30% of all DDoS attacks from January 2022 to June 2023
targeted financial services, followed by gaming at just under 26% and modern
technologies at 18%.</p><p>We don't
have to look far for examples. At the beginning of September, the German
financial market regulator BaFin <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/bafin-website-remains-down-for-fourth-day-after-cyberattack/" target="_blank" rel="follow">fell victim to a cyberattack</a>. During the
summer, <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/" target="_blank" rel="follow">Finance Magnates</a> exclusively reported on what a <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/d/ddos-attack/">DDoS attack</a>
carried out <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/exclusive-inside-fxstreets-ddos-attack/" target="_blank" rel="follow">on FXStreet</a>, a well-known FX market website, looked like. </p><p>The report
also noted that Q2 2023 saw a record increase in the number
of DDoS attacks in the financial industry. The number of identified attacks
exceeded 600, nearly three times more than in the same period a year earlier.</p><p>"DDoS
attacks have long been considered to be one of the most powerful weapons on the
internet. They can lead to huge amounts of service interruptions and large
financial losses, impact just about any part of a network's resources or operations,
and occur at any time," the report read.</p><p>A
separate study from 2023 showed that one of the most frequently attacked
countries in Europe In the form of application-layer DDoS attacks <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/ddos-attacks-on-fx-brokers-spike-cyprus-heavily-targeted/" target="_blank" rel="follow">is Cyprus</a>. The
country hosts a large number of financial companies and retail FX/CFD brokers.</p><p>"Forex Brokers are one of the most attractive targets of attackers. Not only because their business depends almost solely on the availability of their customer portals but because their end customers are very demanding and sensitive when it comes to the availability of those portals and do not tolerate disruptive events so well. Furthermore, Forex Brokers are known to be wealthy organizations, making perfect sense for an attacker to focus on them," commented Mate Ivanszkey, the CEO of Matworks.</p><p>EMEA Doubles the Number of
DDoS Attacks</p><p>EMEA <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/l/leads/">leads</a>
the world in the number of DDoS attack events, with 63.5% of global attacks.
The United Kingdom and Germany are the most affected countries within the
region, contributing to 29.2% and 15.1% of DDoS attacks, respectively. Akamai
suggested that the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a significant
factor behind the surge in attacks on European financial institutions allied
with Ukraine.</p><p>"The
concentration of DDoS in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region points to
the use of DDoS as a tool of politics, hacktivism, and cyber warfare," stated Teresa Walsh, the Global Head Of Intelligence at Akamai.</p><p>DDoS
attacks on the financial sector in EMEA have increased 40% year-over-year.
In the meantime, EMEA's gambling, commerce, and manufacturing sectors face a high number of DDoS attacks, exceeding all other regions combined.</p>

This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.