Your Money is NOT Safe in Big Banks - RUN To Your Local Credit Union!

Banks fail to repel cyber threat

Attacks that have tied up bank websites show U.S. financial institutions' vulnerability to electronic terrorism.

These evil people will not be going after the small local credit union. Put ALL your money there and NEVER use a big bank again. Start investing in banks that invest locally in AMERICANS! Another consideration is due to our lax immigration policy someone named Akbar will steal you personal records from the bank. It will then be sold to some illegal who will commit crimes in your name. Think it can't happen? It has!


Major U.S. banks have been the targets of cyber attack attacks in the past week.

By E. Scott Reckard, Andrew Tangel and Jim Puzzanghera

September 27, 2012

A shadowy but well organized
hacker group in the Middle East has disrupted the electronic banking
operations of America's largest financial institutions in recent days,
underscoring U.S. vulnerability to online terrorism.
A group identifying itself as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters attacked the websites of Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp and Bank of America. The strikes left customers temporarily unable to access their checking accounts, mortgages and other services.
The
banks said account and personal information for their tens of millions
of online and mobile customers were not compromised. Still, experts said
the size and ferociousness of the attacks highlight the broader threat
posed by electronic crime and the susceptibility of financial targets.
Of particular concern, experts said, is that the attackers used the
Internet to warn the institutions ahead of time — but the banks still
couldn't repel the assaults.
"The banks put a lot of effort into
cyber security. But they're so desirable as a target, even with all that
effort they still have problems," said James Lewis,
an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington. "If you can pull together enough resources, you can
overwhelm any defense temporarily."
The attacks on banks began last week on the largest institutions in the country: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup
and Bank of America. They spread to Wells Fargo on Tuesday and U.S.
Bank on Wednesday. Another attack has been threatened against PNC
Financial Services on Thursday.
The U.S. government and banks have
been working feverishly to learn more about the attackers. A financial
executive not authorized to speak publicly described a "war room" where
bankers were coordinating efforts with the Department of Homeland
Security
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam is the name of the military wing of Hamas, the political party that governs the Gaza Strip.
Experts say the attacks appear to have originated from the Middle East,
thought it isn't clear who is behind them or the motivation.
However,
on Tuesday the group posted a manifesto on the Internet saying attacks
would continue until a video insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was
removed from the Internet. That video, "Innocence of Muslims," has
caused violent clashes in the Middle East, and led to the attack of the
U.S. embassy in Libya.
Dmitri Alperovitch, a computer security
expert investigating the recent attacks, said they are the latest in a
series of cyber assaults by the group. The attacks were not only on
financial firms, he said, although he declined to identify other
industries. Alperovitch said Izz ad-Din al-Qassam has demonstrated
"advanced capabilities."
He said it was unlikely that the
anti-Islamic video alone had triggered the attacks. He said his firm,
CrowdStrike Inc., has linked the group to attacks on other targets since
January, long before the trailer for the anti-Islamic film was posted
on YouTube.
Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, had intermittent service
interruptions all day Tuesday, distressing many of its 21 million online
customers.
Similar problems occurred Wednesday at U.S. Bank. The
Minneapolis-based bank said it was experiencing unusually high Web
traffic and that the coordinated attacks were "very similar" to those at
other major banks. "We are working very closely with federal law
enforcement," spokesman Tom Joyce said.
Pittsburgh-based
PNC, facing the threatened attack on Thursday, was preparing for the
worst. "We've seen the posting" on the Internet, PNC spokesman Fred
Solomon said. "We're taking appropriate measures."
Security
consultant Alperovitch said the volume of phony demands on bank sites
was two to three times heavier than previous records for denial of
service attacks, and 10 to 20 times higher than the average such attack.
Still, the onslaught so far has had a "very limited impact," resulting
in only brief shutdowns of websites.
"The attacks, while very,
very large and historic in that sense, are not super sophisticated," he
said. Although evidence points to a group "certainly of Middle Eastern
origin," his company could not tell whether a state or private group was
behind the attacks.
Some speculation centered on whether Iran might be retaliating for economic sanctions placed on the country because of its nuclear program and enforced by U.S. banks.
"I don't believe these were just hackers," Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said last week in an interview on C-SPAN's
"Newsmakers" program. "I think this was done by Iran and the Quds
Force," a secretive Iran military unit blamed for terrorist activity.
Lieberman was observing Yom Kippur and could not be reached Wednesday. The FBI and Justice Department declined to comment on the origin of the attacks.
Two
bankers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their banks were
also on the alert for cyber thieves who might use the attacks as a
diversion.