Financial services institutions face a threat landscape unlike any other sector. State-sponsored threat actors conduct DDoS campaigns for geopolitical signaling. Cybercrime groups use DDoS as a distraction while conducting fraud. Activist groups target banks during political events. All of them at once, sometimes.
Regulatory Landscape
- DORA (EU Digital Operational Resilience Act): requires documented ICT risk management including DDoS scenarios, with binding enforcement from Jan 2025.
- FFIEC guidance (US): mandates that financial institutions test their resilience to DDoS and maintain incident response playbooks.
- PSD2/open banking APIs: third-party API endpoints dramatically expand attack surface.
- Basel III operational risk: DDoS downtime must be factored into operational risk capital calculations.
The DORA Requirement
DORA requires financial entities to maintain ICT resilience that can withstand, respond, and recover from cyber threats. DDoS protection must be documented, tested, and auditable. Using Akarguard as your scrubbing provider satisfies the 'third-party ICT provider' classification — we provide the required audit trail, SLA documentation, and incident reports.
Defense Architecture for Finance
- Always-on scrubbing via DNS — no human decision required to activate protection.
- Sub-second detection SLA for volumetric and application-layer attacks.
- Detailed attack logs for regulatory reporting and post-incident review.
- DPA (Data Processing Agreement) for GDPR compliance — available on request.