DDoS threat actors are increasingly targeting fintech companies. Fintech companies are the ideal target because they hold a larger market share. Fintech companies assure the mass public of faster transactions, 24/7 access, and mobile functionality. And for all these reasons, threat actors launch more sophisticated DDoS attacks toward such organizations, causing severe damage to their victims.
The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) reported that more than 100 financial services firms were targets of a wave of DDoS extortion attacks last year. Threat actors successfully launch more sophisticated attacks and get past the best mitigation systems. As networks become more complex, DDoS attacks evolve, with new attack vectors and more sophisticated attack structures, which causes mitigation to become outdated fast. So, our first step to better DDoS resilience is understanding why threat actors love to attack the fintech industry.
Top 5 Reasons Why Fintech is a DDoS Attackers’ Favourite Target
- Fintech is market conscious
Data protection is crucial for fintech companies, but so is service availability. Fintech consumers have a high dependency on always-on services, which makes the entire fintech industry a lucrative target for attackers.
- A highly vulnerable attack surface
Fintech companies constantly improve security and connectivity for transactions. Since the network must be updated after every security upgrade, DDoS mitigation layers become outdated and full of unknown vulnerabilities, thus, increasing the DDoS attack surface. - Cut-throat competition
Financial services, such as the cryptocurrency market, are at the forefront of global attention, with many companies flooding the market and competing for a larger customer share. And when there’s a high demand, there are higher risks and temptations. In tandem with the growing number of fintech companies offering their services to an increasing clientele, services such as DDoS-for-hire are growing and make it easier to launch attacks anonymously, sometimes for as little as ten dollars.
- Active User Communities
Social media is full of platforms with a growing number of active consumer communities. These communities create trends and have the power to build or destroy a brand image. DDoS attackers are aware of testbrands’ urgency to maintain the social appearance and exploit their vulnerability whenever possible, meaning a simple but effective DDoS attack can tarnish a fintech company’s reputation within hours.
- Opportunity for ransom
Nobody wants to encourage threat actors by paying ransomware, but the repercussions of repeatedly denying service to customers and the bad publicity that comes with it make companies cave in to ransom demands. Once becoming the target for DDoS perpetrators, many companies realize the damage of successful DDoS attacks and end up paying the ransom, which leads to repeated ransom attacks.
So, what can a fintech company do against the DDoS threat?
The best way to eliminate DDoS vulnerabilities is to be constantly testing for them. Uncovering the DDoS vulnerabilities, remediating mitigation layers, and building DDoS resilience are crucial steps for any fintech company. With just a few clicks, RADAR™ identifies DDoS vulnerabilities without any disruption to production environments. By being proactive and taking immediate steps to manage the DDoS attack surface, financial organizations can achieve real-time visibility of all DDoS vulnerabilities with zero downtime and build DDoS resilience to continue fulfilling their full business potential.
