Financial services organizations face a dramatic escalation in distributed denial-of-service attacks, with the median duration of Layers 3 and 4 DDoS attacks increasing 738% since 2024, according to new research from Akamai. The security firm characterizes this shift as a move from opportunistic disruption to sustained campaigns designed to overwhelm infrastructure and damage customer trust.
The prolonged nature of these attacks represents a significant tactical change by threat actors. Steve Winterfeld, Advisory CISO at Akamai, notes that cybercriminals and hacktivists are escalating DDoS from nuisance attacks to sustained sieges that blend hacktivism with financially motivated cybercrime. Financial services institutions have become primary targets for these extended campaigns.
Simultaneously, application programming interfaces have emerged as a critical vulnerability. As financial institutions adopt open banking, real-time payments, and API-driven ecosystems, attackers are exploiting these interfaces as entry points. Akamai's 2026 API Security Impact Study found that 96% of financial services leaders reported at least one API security incident in the past year, the highest rate across any industry sector.
The convergence of longer DDoS attacks and API exploitation creates compounded risk for financial institutions. Winterfeld warns that artificial intelligence does not reduce traditional security risks but rather amplifies them. The combination of sustained network attacks and API vulnerabilities threatens both operational continuity and customer confidence in digital banking services.
Akamai recommends financial services organizations implement comprehensive security strategies addressing both DDoS resilience and API protection. The report provides specific best practices for defending against these evolving threats, emphasizing the need for layered defenses that can withstand prolonged attacks while securing API endpoints against exploitation.
Source: https://cybermagazine.com/news/akamai-why-ai-driven-threats-are-intensifying-for-finance