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Cybercriminals Target Financial APIs To Bypass Security Controls

A new study reveals criminals targeting the financial services industry are adjusting "their attack patterns" to get around security defenses.

SQL injection hack Example of an SQL injection. (Source: pkul/Shutterstock)

The Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai reported a dramatic shift by cybercriminals in 2019. Up to 75% of all credential abuse attacks against the financial services industry targeted APIs directly to bypass security controls.

This was a key revelation in the “Akamai 2020 State of the Internet / Security: Financial Services – Hostile Takeover Attempts” report. According to the report’s findings, from December 2017 through November 2019, the cloud security solutions provider observed some 85.5 billion credential abuse attacks. Nearly 20%, or about 16.5 billion attacks, struck against hostnames clearly identified as API endpoints. Of these, a little more than 473 million attacked organizations in the financial services industry.

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Roy Urrico

Roy Urrico

Roy W. Urrico specializes in articles about financial technology and services for Credit Union Times, as well as ghostwriting, copywriting, and case studies. Also: writer/editor of a semi-annual newsletter for Association for Financial Technology since 1997 and history projects funded by the U.S Interior Department, National Park Service and Warren County (N.Y.).

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