Wall Street & Technology is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Security

03:26 PM
Connect Directly
Twitter
RSS
E-Mail
50%
50%

Was the Bank of America Outage A Denial of Service Attack or An Internal Error?

A group called the "Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam," a reference to the military wing of Hamas, made threats against Bank of America and NYSE.

Bank of America's website experienced periodic outages Tuesday, possibly due to cyber attacks launched in retaliation for "Innocence of Muslims," the amateurish film whose mocking portrait of the Prophet Muhammad has incited deadly riots throughout the Middle East.

The attack was foretold by a Pastebin.com message posted earlier in the day. Allegedly authored by "Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam," a reference to the military wing of Hamas, the posting also declared that the New York Stock Exchange would suffer a similar assault--a threat that has evidently gone unfulfilled.

The posting blamed both the United States and the "Zionist Regime" for the offending film and promised continued aggression until the "erasing of that nasty movie," which YouTube has blocked in volatile regions but which remains freely accessible elsewhere. The initial targets were chosen, the posting declares, because they "are properties of America-Zionist Capitalists."

Bank of America told Reuters that the website had suffered some problems but was available to customers. "We are working to ensure full availability," Mark Pipitone, a bank spokesman told Reuters. Without specifically commenting about a possible denial-of-service attack, Pipitone said: "I can tell you that we continuously take proactive measures to secure our systems." To read the entire original article, visit InformationWeek. Michael Endler joined InformationWeek as an associate editor in 2012. He previously worked in talent representation in the entertainment industry, as a freelance copywriter and photojournalist, and as a teacher. Michael earned a BA in English from Stanford University in 2005 ... View Full Bio

Register for Wall Street & Technology Newsletters
Video