APIs blamed for expanding threat surfaces.
The financial sector was the leading target for volumetric DDoS attacks in the past year.
According to research from Akamai and the FS-ISAC, application-layer DDoS attacks against the financial sector increased 23 percent between 2023 and 2024, with the adoption of APIs in financial services pointed for blame, as they have expanded the sector’s threat surface.
The companies said these precision-targeted attacks are difficult to detect because they mimic legitimate user behavior, which indicates a new level of skill among cyber-criminals.
“DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, evolving from simple network flooding to targeted, multidimensional assaults that exploit intricate vulnerabilities across the entire supply chain,” said Teresa Walsh, FS-ISAC’s chief intelligence officer and managing director, EMEA.
“As threat tactics continue to evolve, we must ensure our technical defenses 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.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
