Major cyberattack on select US banks

[Bill Ryan]

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See the video report on the page linked below. "Tonight" means 27 September, the date of this post.

This looks a little too close for comfort to what John Moore reported a few weeks ago from his insider source: that sometime before the end of October, there would be a massive cyberattack on the US financial system over the course of a weekend, which would bring everything to a crunching halt and eventually result in the suspension of the November election. (My paraphrase.)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/hackers-blo...ry?id=17343055

The financial and banking industries are on high alert tonight as a massive cyberattack continues, with potentially millions of customers of Bank of America, PNC and Wells Fargo finding themselves blocked from banking online.

"There is an elevated level of threat," said Doug Johnson, a vice president and senior adviser of the American Bankers Association. "The threat level is now high."

"This is twice as large as any flood we have ever seen," said Dick Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former cybersecurity czar.

Sources told ABC News that the so-called denial of service attacks had been caused by hackers from the Middle East who had secretly transmitted signals commandeering thousands of computers worldwide.

Those computers -- or "zombies" -- were then used to overwhelm bank websites with a barrage of electronic traffic.

Different banks have been targeted on different days.

Today was PNC Bank's turn: For three hours, ABC News tried to get on the PNC website to no avail.

On Facebook, a frustrated customer, Cynthia Schirm, wrote, "Trying to pay bills. This is ridiculous."

"Hopefully it can be up soon," wrote Stacy Briggs-Gerlach. "Never realized how dependent I am on it!!!"

A group of hackers calling themselves Izz ad-Din al-Qassam warned the financial industry that it was going to attack in retaliation for the controversial film "The Innocence of Muslims," which provoked outrage across the Muslim world earlier this month.

The U.S. said it suspected that hackers in Iran were also involved.

"This is the first time that we know about, where a Middle Eastern entity, perhaps a Middle Eastern government, has attacked websites, critical infrastructure, in the United States," Clarke said.

Even though hackers have not been able to steal any money during these attacks, authorities say they fear the next generation of wide-scale cyber assaults could be more devastating.

"If they get inside the banks, they can move money around and cause financial chaos," Clarke said.

ABC News obtained a Sept. 17 FBI alert warning that foreign hackers were targeting bank and credit union workers.

In a number of those cases, the hackers stole employee login credentials and then wired themselves between $400,000 and $900,000.

Sources told ABC News that the U.S. government was actively working to locate and disrupt the massive attacks.

Edit to add:

It wasn't John Moore -- it was Steve Quayle, interviewed by Alex Jones, on 29 August.

Listen to this three minute extract:

http://projectavalon.net/Steve_Quayl...er_extract.mp3

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
A group of hackers calling themselves Izz ad-Din al-Qassam warned the financial industry that it was going to attack in retaliation for the controversial film "The Innocence of Muslims," which provoked outrage across the Muslim world earlier this month.

The U.S. said it suspected that hackers in Iran were also involved.

"This is the first time that we know about, where a Middle Eastern entity, perhaps a Middle Eastern government, has attacked websites, critical infrastructure, in the United States," Clarke said.

Even though hackers have not been able to steal any money during these attacks, authorities say they fear the next generation of wide-scale cyber assaults could be more devastating.

"If they get inside the banks, they can move money around and cause financial chaos," Clarke said.

My initial reaction to this report is that it smells like a false flag denial of service, intending to spread more fear of Iranians and Muslims amongst Americans.

[Anchor]

Posted by Paul (here)
My initial reaction to this report is that it smells like a false flag denial of service, intending to spread more fear of Iranians and Muslims amongst Americans.

Agree.

Keywords: elevated level of threat / threat level is high.

[Bill Ryan]

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I was wrong -- it wasn't John Moore. It was Steve Quayle, interviewed by Alex Jones, on 29 August.

Listen to this three minute extract:

http://projectavalon.net/Steve_Quayl...er_extract.mp3

[Referee]

Wow I am speechless I did not think they would let it happen. Smells like a False Flag. Blame everyone else and go to War. I find it nearly impossible for them to steal log on's from Iran.

It smells because they are linking it to the controversial film of Mohammad

PS Funny how it is the Mega Banks!

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
Today was PNC Bank's turn: For three hours, ABC News tried to get on the PNC website to no avail.

I just tried going to the main PNC bank website now: www.pnc.com

Here's their front page:

[Flash]

Going to get some cash out of my bank tomorrow, (a small Canadian bank, not targetted yet) to hold on for a month at least - and pay my heating bill not to be cut off.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
The financial and banking industries are on high alert tonight as a massive cyberattack continues, with potentially millions of customers of Bank of America, PNC and Wells Fargo finding themselves blocked from banking online.

Would it make sense to change this thread's title from "Massive cyberattack on US banks" to "Massive cyberattack on select US banks" ?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Posted by Paul (here)
I just tried going to the main PNC bank website now: www.pnc.com

The main web pages for other two banks named, bankofamerica.com and wellsfargo.com, show no problem at this time.

This is consistent with the details in the original article, that state that it is now PNC's turn to be targeted.

[Flash]

What about Major attack, it is large but less massive than massive. We could keep massive for the next one just before the election I bet.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Flash (here)
What about Major attack, it is large but less massive than massive. We could keep massive for the next one just before the election I bet.

Yeah - I like that suggested change. I'll make it now (hope Bill doesn't mind.)

[Rocky_Shorz]

it would be fun to wake up and find $500,000 sitting in my bank account...

[bluestflame]

or the banks in question are using it to buy time to cover thier tracks

like when you do the last minute frantic tidy up before the landlord does a house inspection?

[Rocky_Shorz]

should be easy to track down, can't be that many people in the world mad at bankers...

[ThePythonicCow]

Other news reports on this cyberattack in the last 12 hours:

Newsday:

Two more major American banks, U.S. Bank and PNC, reported problems with their customer websites Wednesday after a financial services security group warned about possible cyberattacks.

...

Wells Fargo & Co.’s website was attacked Tuesday.

SecurityInfoWatch:

-PNC Financial Services Group Inc. became the latest major U.S. bank hit with a cyber attack said to be retaliation for an Internet video that has stirred violent protests across the Middle East.

...

Customers of Wells Fargo & Co. and U.S. Bancorp also had trouble accessing those banks' sites on Wednesday.

NYTimes:

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo and PNC all experienced disruptions and delays on their banking sites over the past week because of denial of service or DDoS attacks, in which hackers clog a Web site with data requests until it slows or collapses under the load.

A hacker group, which calls itself the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, took credit for the attacks in online posts.

Cleveland Plain Dealer:

PNC is the latest large U.S. bank targeted for a cyber attack

...

Today's incident follows similar attacks this week on Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and KeyCorp. (See Wednesday's story.) Last week, Chase, Bank of America and Citi were targeted. All are among the 20 largest U.S. banks. The group that claims responsibility said PNC would be next. The attacks generally last a day or two.

Reuters:

• Wells Fargo website facing lingering problems
• US Bancorp says working with federal officials
• PNC, also threatened, says taking precautions

Fox News:

The customer websites of Wells Fargo (WFC), PNC Bank (PNC) and US Bancorp (USB) are facing lingering slowdowns Wednesday that appear to be related to the cyber attacks that hit J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) last week.

U.S. Bancorp apologized to customers experiencing intermittent delays and said it is “working hard” to restore full connectivity.

“The issues are related to unusual and coordinated high traffic volume designed to slow down the system - similar to what other banks have experienced in the past week,” the bank’s senior vice president of corporate public relations, Tom Joyce, said in a statement to FOX Business.

[Rocky_Shorz]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kc_htdciKaM

[A Simple Human]

Posted by Paul (here)
This is consistent with the details in the original article, that state that it is now PNC's turn to be targeted.

A story by AFP warned of more bank attacks in an article, Islamist Group Warns of New Cyber Attacks on US Banks, on September 25, 2012. The article specifically mentions PNC Bank as one target:

In a statement a group of hackers calling themselves the "Cyber Fighters of Izz al-Din al-Qassam" said they planned to attack the website of Wells Fargo bank on Tuesday, that of US Bank on Wednesday and the PNC Bank on Thursday, SITE said.

The article clearly suggests that the attacks would be carried out by an Islamist group in response to an anti-Islam film. Interestingly enough, Joe Lieberman, who is chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, suggests that this was done by Iran and the Qods force in response to the increasingly strong economic sanctions by the United States and it's European allies. You can read those articles in full here:

Lieberman: Blame Iran for Cyber Attacks on Bank of America, Chase (Fox Business)

Iran is behind bank cyber attacks, Sen. Joe Lieberman believes (LA Times)


Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman, second from right, after the Senate failed to pass cyber-security legislation in August. He took questions from reporters along with, from left, Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press / September 26, 2012)

Notice the none too pleased reaction of Joe Lieberman, while standing alongside his good buddy Jay Rockefeller, in the above photo due to the Senate's failure to pass cyber-security legislation. Which leads me to this:

Posted by Paul (here)
My initial reaction to this report is that it smells like a false flag denial of service, intending to spread more fear of Iranians and Muslims amongst Americans.

Not only is the cabal trying to generate contempt for Muslims amongst citizens of the USA and galvanize the military into a war with Iran, but it also appears to be an attempt at garnering the support of the populace for "cyber-security" legislation. I'm sure the cabal is working all the angles.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by A Simple Human (here)

Posted by Paul (here)
My initial reaction to this report is that it smells like a false flag denial of service, intending to spread more fear of Iranians and Muslims amongst Americans.

Not only is the cabal trying to generate contempt for Muslims amongst citizens of the USA and galvanize the military into a war with Iran, but it also appears to be an attempt at garnering the support of the populace for "cyber-security" legislation. I'm sure the cabal is working all the angles.

Good point.

[bluestflame]

"cast the net wide" comes to mind

[Referee]

Slightly off topic however they have arrested the maker of the film "The Innocence of Muslims," Here is the clip. My first impression is fake.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a1pMWlZQWjg

[spiritguide]

My intuition says that mossad might have it's fingers in the pie. IMHO