AI-powered botnets fuel rise in DDoS attacks on financial services
Akamai reports that cybercriminals and pro-Iran hacktivists are conducting increasingly sophisticated DDoS attacks on financial services using AI-powered botnets. According to the company's research, attack duration has increased 738% since 2024, and financial services institutions report record-high rates of API security incidents.
What happened
Cybercriminals and pro-Iran hacktivists are targeting financial services more than any other industry with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, according to Akamai's AI-Empowered Botnets and API Visibility Gaps report released in May 2026.
The median duration of global Layers 3 and 4 DDoS attacks targeting the financial services sector increased 738% since 2024, driven by AI-powered infrastructure. Advanced bot activity surged by 147% in late 2025, with one case study showing 96% of all site traffic identified as malicious scraping bots.
Reported impact
Among financial service leaders surveyed in the 2026 API Security Impact Study, 96% reported at least one API security incident over the past 12 months. In 2025, 60% of total web attacks and 83% of incursions against API endpoints targeted banking.
Nearly 80% of financial institutions have faced ransomware attacks in the past two years, yet less than half have adopted advanced security technologies. DDoS attack methods vary by region: EMEA is the primary target for Layers 3 and 4 DDoS (62%), APAC is most targeted by Layer 7 DDoS (52%), and North America experiences more web attacks (44%).
Index analysis
AI-driven bots are amplifying the scale and sophistication of DDoS attacks on financial services, enabling longer-duration and more complex attacks compared to earlier years.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.