Are You Prepared? Cyber Attacks Surge in the Financial Sector, and Arab Region Hit Hardest
No matter how secure a country, nation, or region is, DDoS attack prevention has never been a bigger priority. Yet, why hasn’t the Arab world wailed the warning siren?
A report issued by “Akamai Technologies” indicates that the financial sector has become a primary target for internet criminals in 2023, particularly affecting companies in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region.
According to the report, cyber attacks on the financial sector have seen a colossal increase of 119% when comparing the second quarter (Q2) of 2022 and 2023. This surge places the financial sector in 3rd place among the most attacked forces across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, with approximately one billion attacks on web applications and related application programming interfaces (APIs) in the industry.
The insurance sub-sector is the most impacted, being targeted by more than half of all web attacks, which represents a 68% increase on an annual basis.
“Akamai” also pointed out that insurance companies are a main target due to their hold of large amounts of personal identification information related to their customers, allowing threat actors to commit identity theft.
European, Middle Eastern and African regions also witnessed the majority of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, accounting for 63.5% of these attacks worldwide. This is approximately double the figure recorded in North America, which came in second place with 32.6%.
Richard Meeus, Security Technology and Strategy Director in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for “Akamai”, commented, “As internet criminals continue to follow the money, financial services remain an extremely attractive target. At the same time, it is one of the most regulated sectors, so it is essential for companies to align their security strategy with emerging laws and regulations.”
Distributed denial of service attacks involve overwhelming websites with a flood of unnecessary data sent by devices infected with remotely controlled malware.
“Akamai” believes that the war in Ukraine plays a role in these attacks, as attackers politically allied with Russia target the banks of European countries that support Ukraine, indicating that this is the main reason for the increased attacks in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
DDoS attacks on gambling, trading, and manufacturing companies were also higher in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions compared to all other regions combined.
Greater attention is required from the world. DDoS attacks prevention is imperative.
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