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New research reveals that distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting the Asia-Pacific financial sector make up 38 per cent of all volumetric DDoS activity.
The financial sector in Australia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is increasingly coming under attack by hackers employing DDoS attacks to disrupt services and damage customer trust.
Attacks against financial institutions in the region made up an alarming 38 per cent of all such attacks, compared to just 11 per cent the year before.
The new figures come from a report published by not-for-profit FS-ISAC, which focuses on cyber security in the financial sector, and cyber security firm Akamai. The report, From Nuisance to Strategic Threat: DDoS Attacks Against the Financial Sector, was released on 11 June and outlines the rise in both scale and sophistication of these attacks.
More than 20 financial institutions in the APAC region were targeted by DDoS attacks in 2024. According to FS-ISAC and Akamai, one threat actor or hacking group is likely behind the campaign.
“DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, evolving from simple network flooding to targeted, multi-dimensional assaults that exploit intricate vulnerabilities across the entire supply chain,” Teresa Walsh, FS-ISAC’s chief intelligence officer and managing director, EMEA, said in a statement.
“As threat tactics continue to evolve, we must ensure our technical defences evolve, and our people, tools, and processes work seamlessly together. It is critical that we harden our infrastructure and foster a culture of continuous vigilance and collaboration to protect continuity and customer trust.”
To counter the problem, FS-ISAC and Akamai have developed a DDoS Maturity Model that details the characteristics of such attacks, describes the defensive capabilities needed to handle a DDoS attack, and outlines a risk assessment that can outline how likely an institution is to withstand an attack.
“Threat actors will continue to leverage DDoS attacks to exploit the security of our institutions,” Steve Winterfeld, advisory CISO of Akamai, said.
“These attacks strive to exhaust an institution’s network infrastructure and, in turn, drain the resources used to defend against them. The implementation of mitigation strategies, robust cyber hygiene fundamentals, and industry best practices can help the sector defend against the evolving risk.”
You can read the full report here.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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