The financial sector has apparently become a prime target for cybercriminals in 2023, with companies in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region particularly hard hit.
A new report from CDN provider Akamai Technologies revealed a massive 119% increase in cyber attacks on the financial sector when comparing the second quarter of 2022 and 2023.
This makes it the third most attacked vector in EMEA, with roughly a billion attacks on web apps and APIs related to the industry. Insurance is the most affected sub-sector and is responsible for more than half of all web attacks, representing a 68% increase year-on-year.
DDoS increase
Akamai notes that insurance companies are a prime target because they often hold large amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) related to their customers, allowing threat actors to commit identity theft.
EMEA also suffered by far the most DDoS attacks, accounting for 63.5% of such attacks worldwide. This is almost double the amount suffered by North America (32.6%), which came in second.
Britain was the most affected country in EMEA, with 29.2% of DDoS attacks, beating Germany with 15.1%. Comparing the second quarters of last year and this year, DDoS attacks on financial services in EMEA have increased again by 40%.
Akamai believes that the war in Ukraine could play a role in these attacks, as attackers politically linked to Russia will target European banks if they are perceived to support Ukraine. He calls this the main reason for the increase in EMEA attacks.
DDoS attacks on gambling, trading and manufacturing companies were also more prevalent in EMEA than all other regions combined.
Richard Meeus, Akamai’s Director of Security Technology and Strategy, EMEA, noted that “while cybercriminals continue to follow the money, financial services remain a hugely attractive target. At the same time, this is one of the most regulated sectors and therefore it is essential for companies to improve their security strategy to align with emerging legislation and regulations.”