Financial Services is the Top Target for DDoS Attacks in Asia

Financial Services is the Top Target for DDoS Attacks in Asia

Cyberattacks, such as distributed denial-of-service, are on the rise with the financial sector being the top target for hackers, according to a report by FS-ISAC.

The financial services sector in Asia Pacific was the most targeted for volumetric DDoS attacks — distributed denial-of-service attacks where a server is flooded with internet traffic to prevent access by normal users – according to a report by cybersecurity non-profit organization FS-ISAC and Akamai Technologies, a cybersecurity and cloud computing company.

The region’s financial industry accounted for 38 percent of all volumetric DDoS attacks in 2024, up from just 11 percent in 2023. Over 20 financial institutions in six APAC countries were targeted in an «unprecedented wave of DDoS attacks, likely executed by a single threat actor or hacker group».

Hacker Strategies

According to the report entitled «From Nuisance to Strategic Threat: DDoS Attacks Against the Financial Sector», there is a disproportionate increase in DDoS attacks on the financial sector.

Attacks on the application layer of tech stacks, such as application programming interfaces (APIs) and customer-facing websites, increased by 23 percent. The widespread use of DDoS-for-hire services is disguising attackers and making it difficult to identify motivations and develop mitigation plans. Geopolitical tensions particularly the Hamas-Israel and Russia-Ukraine wars, have also fueled a surge in hacktivism or the use of cyberattacks to make a political statement.

«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,» commented Steve Winterfeld, advisory CISO of Akamai.