News broke earlier today that two top Dutch banks – ABN Amro and ING were hit by a series of DDoS attacks that took down their networks so customers were unable to use their mobile or online banking for hours. IT security experts commented below.
Sean Newman, Director at Corero Network Security:
“Reports of successful DDoS attacks against two major Dutch banking organisations come as a surprise. However, the surprise is not that these types of organisations are actually being subjected to such attacks but, after several years of similar high-profile attacks, that they still haven’t put adequate protection in place. Reports of them being briefed on how to “recover quickly” are unlikely to help their customers’ confidence in receiving uninterrupted banking services in the future. However, automated real-time protection is available to keep banking services online in the face of such DDoS attacks and any organisation which relies on high degrees of online availability should be investing on this.”
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Ben Herzberg, Security Research Manager at Imperva:
“It is not known what the motivation behind these attacks was. However, the simplicity and low costs of carrying out such attacks makes any online presence a target, and organizations should assess the risk of going off-line as part of their continuous risk assessments, and make sure they’re protected against such threats.”
