Best Practices for Preventing DDoS Attacks on Online Banking By Janifha Evangeline, Assistant Editor, CIOTechOutlook

Best Practices for Preventing DDoS Attacks on Online Banking

Janifha Evangeline, Assistant Editor, CIOTechOutlook | Friday, 15 November 2024, 20:22 IST

On November 13^th, 2024, Arelion made an announcement that it has expanded its partnership with NETSCOUT with an aim to strengthen the DDoS attack mitigation capabilities. NETSCOUT is one of the leading providers of performance management, cybersecurity as well as DDoS attack protection solutions. This expanded partnership facilitates Arelion in supporting the network security needs of global firms amidst surging attacks on critical infrastructure.

“As a Tier-1 Internet carrier supporting the majority of global Internet traffic, this continued collaboration reflects our ongoing investment in best-of-breed network security solutions to protect the technology ecosystem,” said Scott Nichols, Chief Commercial Officer at Arelion.

“Financial services, government, utilities, and other vital sectors are experiencing increased risk from more sophisticated and frequent DDoS attacks, reinforcing the need for comprehensive DDoS protection,” stated Darren Anstee, chief security technologist, NETSCOUT.

Distributed Denial of Services attacks pose a significant threat, in the era of digital banking where customers anticipate secure as well as uninterrupted access to financial services. These attacks will lead to financial losses, by overwhelming systems with excessive traffic for rendering them inaccessible, and disrupt services, and erode customer trust. In this article let us look at the comprehensive best practices for mitigating the risk of DDoS attacks on online banking systems.

Firstly, to prevent DDoS attacks it is important for understanding their mechanisms. These attacks involving several compromised systems which are often part of a botnet, sending overwhelming traffic to a target server or a network. The main objective is to not only disrupt services but also mask various other malicious activities such as data breaches. Owing to the high stakes involved, financial institutions are one of the main targets. Also, recognizing the potential scale as well as a variety of these attacks help in preparing robust defenses.

Implementing Robust Network Architecture

One of the foundations of DDoS resilience is strong network architecture. Also, employing a distributed network design helps in ensuring that traffic is not funneled through a single point of failure. Redundant servers & load balancers spread traffic evenly, preventing any single server from being overwhelmed. In order to absorb as well as distribute traffic, banks must utilize cloud based solutions & content delivery networks. Institutions can maintain service availability even during a surge in traffic by utilizing the aforementioned architectures.

“The data privacy issue can be addressed by encrypting the whole or a part of the data stored on the cloud. The data availability issue can be addressed by making the system resilient to DDoS and similar attacks. Data integrity can be achieved by implementing the right architecture solution to ensure eventual - if not strong – consistency,” says Biju Varghese, Director, Engineering, GlobalLogic.

Deploying Advanced Traffic Monitoring Tools

For identifying as well as mitigating the DDoS attacks in the early stages, real-time traffic monitoring is crucial. Tools which help in analyzing patterns as well as identifying anomalies, which include spikes in requests from specific IP ranges or also unusual geographic traffic, are indispensible. Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) as well as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) work hand in hand for detecting and blocking malicious traffic. Furthermore, banks must deploy AI-powered solutions that are capable of learning normal traffic patterns as well as flagging deviations for closer inspection.

Utilizing DDoS Mitigation Services

A strong line of defense against large-scale attacks can be offered to banks by Specialized DDoS mitigation services. Malicious requests are filtered out by the services as they route traffic through their networks even before they reach the servers of the banks.

Such type of solutions are effective specifically for absorbing volumetric attacks where huge amounts of traffic are generated to overwhelm systems. For ensuring comprehensive protection banks must partner with reputable DDoS mitigation providers.

“In today’s evolving threat environment, intruders are using a variety of methods and technology to attack our systems. This ranges from seeding malwares right up to complex attacks such as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) and Distributed Denial of Services (DDOS),” says Pradipto Chakrabarty, Regional Director, CompTIA.

“The critical success factor for securing the integrity of data in this ecosystem lies in our capability to defend. This requires a radical shift in the core competence of today’s cyber warriors. A security professional in today’s environment will require strong analytical knowledge to evaluate and predict vulnerabilities,” he adds.

Strengthening Firewall & Router Configurations

Proper configuration of firewalls as well as routers plays a crucial role in defending against DDoS attacks. Firewalls must be set up for blocking suspicious IP addresses as well as restricting traffic from known malicious sources. Also, rate limiting that caps the number of requests from a single IP address, eliminates individual systems from overwhelming the network. Also, Access Control Lists must be configured on routers for permitting only legitimate traffic, decreasing the risk of malicious traffic that reach critical systems.

Regularly updating software and systems

Outdated software as well as systems are exploited often as the entry points to launch DDoS attacks. Hence, all banks and financial institutions should ensure that all software including applications, operating systems, as well as security tools are up-to-date with the latest patches & security updates. In order to identify as well as address potential weakness proactively, vulnerability management programs must be in place. Lastly, regular audits as well as penetration testing will help us uncover vulnerabilities which could be exploited in a DDoS attack.

Preventing DDoS attack on online banking system needs a multi-faceted approach which combines technology, people and process. Every factor/element plays a major role in building a secure environment which includes robust network architecture and advanced monitoring tools to employee training & collaboration with industry peers. Banks should stay vigilant as well as proactive as cyber threats continue to evolve. They should adopt innovative solutions for protecting their systems, customers & reputation. Financial institutions can ensure uninterrupted service delivery as well as maintain the trust of their customers in the digital age by implementing the aforementioned best practices.