The financial sector will be a prime target for cybercriminals in 2023, with companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa particularly affected, according to a new report.
A report published by Akamai Technologies showed that cyber attacks on the financial sector increased significantly by 119% compared to 2022 and the second quarter of 2023.
This makes it the third most vulnerable attack vector in the EMEA region, with nearly 1 billion attacks against web applications and industry-related APIs.
The insurance sector was the most affected sub-sector, accounting for more than half of all cyberattacks, an increase of 68% year-on-year.
Akamai said insurance companies were a prime target. This is because they often store large amounts of personally identifiable information about their customers, allowing criminals to impersonate them.
The EMEA region also suffered the most DDoS attacks, accounting for 63.5% of global attacks. This is almost twice as much as in North America's second region (32.6%).
The United Kingdom is the most affected country in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The percentage of DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks is about 29.2%, and exceeds 15.1% in Germany.
DDoS attacks on financial services increased by 40% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa compared to the second quarter of last year and the same period this year.
Akamai believes the war in Ukraine played a role in these attacks, as attackers politically aligned with Russia will attack European banks if they believe they are supporting Ukraine, citing this as one of the main reasons for the increase in attacks in Europe, the Middle East and Europe. Other African countries.
The EMEA region also sees more DDoS attacks on gaming, retail and manufacturing companies than all other regions combined.
“As cybercriminals continue to chase money, financial services remain a very attractive target,” commented Richard Meeus, Director of Security Technology and Strategy EMEA at Akamai. It is one of the most regulated industries, so companies must align their security policies with new laws and regulations.