SABRIC, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, last week confirmed that the banking industry has been hit by a wave of ransom driven Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, targeting various public-facing services across multiple banks. A DDoS attack is an attempt by criminals to crash a website by overwhelming it with a flood of fake traffic or digital requests.

SABRIC emphasised that DDoS attacks like this one do not involve hacking or a data breach and therefore no customer data is at risk. It does, however, involve increased traffic on networks necessary to access public-facing services. This may cause minor disruptions.

“Robust defensive strategies have been invoked across the industry and we are confident that customer impact will be kept to a minimum. Despite our Banks preparedness and resilience, we will continue to monitor this situation very closely and respond as required,” according to SABRIC acting CEO, Susan Potgieter.

Legalbrief reported that the City of Johannesburg was hit by a similar attack last Thursday night, with a group calling themselves the Shadow Kill Hackers demanding a ransom payment in bitcoin. The city shut down its website, e-services and billing system in reaction to the attack.

Click here to read the FIN24 article that shares more insight on the matter.

SABRIC, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, last week confirmed that the banking industry has been hit by a wave of ransom driven Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, targeting various public-facing services across multiple banks. A DDoS attack is an attempt by criminals to crash a website by overwhelming it with a flood of fake traffic or digital requests.

SABRIC emphasised that DDoS attacks like this one do not involve hacking or a data breach and therefore no customer data is at risk. It does, however, involve increased traffic on networks necessary to access public-facing services. This may cause minor disruptions.

“Robust defensive strategies have been invoked across the industry and we are confident that customer impact will be kept to a minimum. Despite our Banks preparedness and resilience, we will continue to monitor this situation very closely and respond as required,” according to SABRIC acting CEO, Susan Potgieter.

Legalbrief reported that the City of Johannesburg was hit by a similar attack last Thursday night, with a group calling themselves the Shadow Kill Hackers demanding a ransom payment in bitcoin. The city shut down its website, e-services and billing system in reaction to the attack.

Click here to read the FIN24 article that shares more insight on the matter.