A wave of distributed denial-of-service attacks plagued financial services companies during the first quarter of this year, according to a report from Prolexic Technologies Inc.
A distributed denial-of-service attack is one in which several compromised systems attack a single target, causing denial of service for legitimate users. The flood of incoming messages to the target system essentially forces it to shut down, thereby denying service.
The Florida-based company said its client data showed a 25% increase in the number of attacks in the first three months of 2012 compared to the same period last year. The largest number of attacks originated from China, followed by the United States and Russia.
“The considerable increase in attack intensity indicates that attackers are evolving their strategies, increasing their firepower and focusing on specific targets such as financial services,” the report noted.
It also stated shorter average duration of attacks showed hackers are using “shorter, stronger bursts of traffic to conduct” denial-of-service campaigns.
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