A coordinated DDoS campaign dubbed “DarkStorm” is currently targeting payment processors and banking portals across Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The attack volume has peaked at 2.5 Tbps, causing intermittent transaction failures for retail POS systems and mobile banking apps during the busy year-end sales period.
Business Impact
For banking clients, this threatens transaction availability and customer trust. The attackers are using a new “Application Layer” flood that mimics legitimate user behavior, making it difficult for standard firewalls to distinguish between a real customer and a bot.
Why It Happened
The botnet is comprised largely of compromised IoT devices (cameras, DVRs) within the region, allowing the traffic to bypass “Geo-Blocking” defenses that typically filter out traffic from outside the GCC.
Recommended Executive Action
Activate “Under Attack” mode on your WAF (Web Application Firewall) immediately. Shift traffic monitoring to “Behavioral Analysis” rather than just IP reputation. Communicate proactively with merchants if payment latencies increase.
Hashtags: #DDoS #Bahrain #GCC #BankingSecurity #DarkStorm #FinTech #CyberAttack #InfoSec