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financial services ddos attacks

Financial services see DDoS attacks double

Financial services companies worldwide saw the number of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks more than double in the second half of 2024. A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt a service by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. In the same period, the total number of DDoS attacks globally grew by 17 percent. According to global hosting and cloud services company Gcore, the financial services sector saw the most significant rise of any sector in the third and fourth quarters of 2024, with a rise of 117 percent. This marks a consistent overall increase in DDoS attacks quarter on quarter. While the third and fourth quarters of 2024 showed an increase of 17 percent, this represents a 56 percent rise over the same period in 2023.

accounting and law firm threat

Ransomware gangs target law and accountancy firms

In what is bad news for law and accounting firms, the professional and technical services sector has now overtaken the manufacturing sector as the prime target for ransomware attacks of Q3 2024. According to cybersecurity company Nuspire: “These firms handle highly sensitive client data, such as financial records, legal documents, and business strategies, making them prime targets for ransomware operators.” Nuspire predicts that, with ransom demands averaging around $2.5 million a hit for law firms, ransomware operators will continue to target this sector as long as the potential rewards outweigh the effort. The situation is particularly dire for smaller practices, which may lack the resources to protect against today’s increasingly ruthless and sophisticated cyber-attacks.

Record Cybercrime Losses

FBI reports record cybercrime losses in 2023

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that last year the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received a record number of complaints, with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion. Although the figures for 2023 represent a 10 percent increase over 2022 and a 22 percent rise in losses suffered, the FBI fears that even this only represents the tip of a vast unseen iceberg of cybercrime. The report quotes the FBI’s recent infiltration of the Hive ransomware group, which discovered that only 20 percent of victims had reported the incidents to law enforcement authorities.

FNF hack exposes 1.3m customer details

US real estate financial services fat cat, Fidelity National Financial (FNF), has revealed details of a cybersecurity breach that occurred in November, exposing the details of 1.3 million customers. An updated filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims the attack, which occurred on November 19, 2023, was detected early on and successfully contained. But despite FNF’s best efforts, over a million customers will wonder if the threat actors behind the breach also believe that their attack has been successfully “contained.” The nature of their target suggests otherwise. A Fortune 500 company, FNF is one of the largest companies of its kind in the US, with an annual revenue of over $10 billion, a market capitalization of $13.3 billion, and a staff of over 23,000 people.

Mr. Cooper Mortgage Loan Data Breach

Mr. Cooper breach exposes 14m victims’ data

US mortgage service provider Mr. Cooper has disclosed a breach to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) affecting over 14.5 million people. Breached data includes names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, and bank account numbers. The Mr Cooper breach is indicative of several trends likely to shape the cybersecurity industry in 2024.     The new obligation to report material cyber breaches within four days that came into effect last week on December 15 is widely expected to reveal a huge iceberg of what might have previously been unreported and, therefore, uncounted cyber breaches. The obligation to detail the loss and those affected also puts a big onus on organizations in all sectors to implement systems capable of identifying and tracking any intrusions into their network. 

Lloyd’s warns of a potential $3.5 trillion cyber-strike

According to Lloyds, a single well-orchestrated cyber strike breaching a financial services payments system could lead to losses of $1.1 trillion in the US alone, with global losses amounting to $3.5 trillion over a five-year period. China would face losses of around $470 billion and Japan $200 billion.

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