A bank loses $1.8 mn on average after DDoS attack

Moscow, June 20 (IANS) A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on bank's online services, on average, costs the organisation nearly $1.8 million -- double the price of recovering from a malware incident, Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said on Tuesday.

DDoS is a type of cyber attack where multiple compromised systems are used to target a single system.

In a new study, a Kaspersky team found that 61 per cent of cybersecurity incidents affecting online banking come with additional costs for the institution targeted, including data loss, the loss of brand reputation and confidential information becoming leaked.

"If a bank's online services come under attack, it is very difficult for customers to trust that bank with their money, so it's easy to see why an attack could be so crippling," said Kirill Ilganaev, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, in a statement.

The cybersecurity firm recommended that if banks want to protect themselves effectively from the price tag of an online banking cybersecurity incident, they need to become more prepared for dangers that DDoS attacks pose to their online banking services.

DDoS attacks against financial institutions are often designed to cripple banking websites.

"When organisations are attacked by DDoS, customer-facing resources suffer more in banking, than in any other sector," the company said.