Financial services organisations in Africa are continuing to fall victim to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, according to NETSCOUT’s 1H2024 DDoS Threat Intelligence Report (TIR). The report highlights Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa in particular as being hotspots for these attacks within the financial sector.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the DDoS threat landscape, revealing that attackers are targeting financial institutions with increasing frequency and sophistication, often leveraging these attacks to disrupt critical services and extort ransoms.
Bryan Hamman, regional director for Africa at NETSCOUT, comments: “The financial services sector—which encompasses organisations such as banks, insurance companies, investment houses, real estate companies, and lenders—remains a lucrative target for cybercriminals due to the critical nature of its operations and the value of its data. Understandably, service availability in industries such as banking is of paramount importance, and disruptions of any type can have far-reaching consequences.
“Over the past year or so, we have seen an intensification in the activities of geopolitically motivated hacktivists and their coordinated DDoS attack efforts aimed at banking and financial services. One particular threat actor known as NoName057(16), which has garnered notoriety for developing and distributing custom malware as well as for its innovative use of gamification in cyberwarfare, has claimed 222 attacks against the global banking and financial services sector for the first six months of the year. And, in fact, this industry has generally been the most targeted by all noted hacktivist groups for the first half of 2024.”
NETSCOUT also noted that DDoS attacks against the insurance market in particular were still of concern across the Europe, Middle East and African (EMEA) region, showing 10,840 attacks against this type of organisation over the six-month period, with the bulk of these taking place in South Africa.
How Cybercriminals Are Targeting African Financial Services
Within Africa, the financial services sectors in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have notably been affected.
South African insurance agencies and brokerages bore the brunt of incidents EMEA-wide for the industry, having been subjected to 10,720 attacks over the six-month period. The largest of these incidents reached a peak of 183.84 Gbps, causing disruptions at a maximum impact of 40.74 Mpps and an average attack duration of 15 minutes
The NETSCOUT report also indicates that Kenyan portfolio management and investment advice businesses, as well as certified public accountants, fell within the country’s top five most targeted industries. Furthermore, commercial banking in Kenya was listed as the seventh sector under fire, while in Nigeria, local title abstract and settlement offices faced DDoS activity.
The Growing Need for Vigilance
“DDoS attacks are becoming more sophisticated and harder to mitigate,” Hamman continues. “Cybercriminals are now leveraging advanced techniques to overwhelm financial institutions, often targeting infrastructure components like Domain Name System (DNS) servers that are critical for digital services.
“As African economies continue their digital transformation, it is clear that financial institutions must adopt robust cybersecurity measures to mitigate the rising DDoS threat. A critical step in this process is to adopt adaptive DDoS protection strategies, including real-time traffic monitoring, automated response systems, and comprehensive incident response plans,” he concludes.
For more insights into how NETSCOUT is helping financial institutions mitigate cyber threats, explore the full DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, or visit the NETSCOUT Cyber Threat Horizon for real-time attack statistics.
