Banks, Finance Firms Battered by 22% Surge in Malicious Bots (1)

Long considered a nuisance, distributed-denial-of-service attacks, or DDoS, are a growing problem for banks and other financial businesses, according to a new report.

The volume of DDoS attacks targeting financial firms increased 22% year-over-year as of November, according to a new report first provided to Bloomberg News by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which is known as FS-ISAC. The issue is particularly pronounced in Europe, where financial services saw a 73% increase in DDoS attacks, the report showed.

DDoS attackers marshal an army of connected devices — known as a botnet — and direct internet ...