Study identified increasing use of DDoS as
political tool
RESTON,
Va. and CAMBRIDGE,
Mass., Jan. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FS-ISAC, the
member-driven, not-for-profit organization that advances
cybersecurity and resilience in the global financial system, and
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that
powers and protects life online, today released new research
on the threat that Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks
pose to the financial services sector.
The report, titled, The Evolution of DDoS: Return of the
Hacktivists, notes that 2022 saw a 22 percent uptick in the
volume of DDoS attacks targeting financial firms. This is
especially true across Europe,
where the attacks increased by 73 percent, and where financial
services were the target of 50 percent of all DDoS assaults.
The Evolution of DDoS: Return of the
Hacktivist finds that much of the increase in DDoS attacks
is driven by groups that have taken sides in the Russia-Ukraine war or other geopolitical conflicts.
This includes organizations such as Killnet, which has targeted
the United States and nations
throughout Europe.
Other major findings of the report include:
- Taking a cue from ransomware attacks, many DDoS campaigns now
include extortion tactics.
- DDoS can serve as a cover for other, potentially more damaging
cyber activities such as infiltration of systems and exfiltration
of data and malware installation. This means that when
cybersecurity teams encounter DDoS, they must also be on the alert
for other types of attacks, putting extra strain on already limited
resources.
- The evolution of DDoS means that firms must update their risk
profiles and mitigation measures accordingly. Far from a low-level
annoyance, DDoS should increasingly be considered a key cyber
defense challenge. The report discusses several mitigation
strategies, including network best practices, cyber hygiene and
resilience.
- As more services are moved to the cloud or contracted in an aaS
(as-a-Service) model, those services will depend on other supply
chain components. Service disruptions anywhere in the supply chain
can have a serious impact on an organization's operation.
"The continued evolution of DDoS shows that it is far from a
solved problem," said Teresa Walsh,
Global Head of Intelligence at FS-ISAC. "Working with our sector's
critical providers like Akamai, who have first-hand knowledge of
how DDoS is affecting the financial sector, enables us to arm our
members with the understanding and guidance they need to better
protect their firms and customers."
"Though DDoS attacks have been around for some time, we are
seeing that they are evolving in new, innovative and aggressive
ways," said Steve Winterfeld,
Advisory CISO at Akamai. "We teamed up with FS-ISAC to produce
The Evolution of DDoS: Return of the Hacktivists in an
effort to better educate the financial community about the threats
of DDoS and to offer some threat trends and best practices for the
sector to better combat these attacks."
The collaboration on this report is a product of Akamai's
founding participation in FS-ISAC's Critical Providers Program,
launched in 2022 to bolster the financial sector's supply chain
security .
About FS-ISAC
FS-ISAC is the member-driven,
not-for-profit organization that advances cybersecurity and
resilience in the global financial system, protecting the financial
institutions and the people they serve. Founded in 1999, the
organization's real-time information-sharing network amplifies the
intelligence, knowledge, and practices of its members for the
financial sector's collective security and defenses. Member
financial firms represent $100
trillion in assets in 75 countries.
About Akamai
Akamai powers and protects life online.
Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and
secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live,
work, and play every day. With the world's most distributed compute
platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to
develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to
users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security,
compute, and delivery solutions at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog,
or follow Akamai Technologies on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Contacts
Elizabeth Heathfield
FS-ISAC Media
media@fsisac.com
Jim Lubinskas
Akamai Media Relations
703.907.9103
jlubinsk@akamai.com
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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.