Wells Fargo has become the latest bank to be targeted by a cyber gang seeking revenge for the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims.
A group called Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters has claimed responsibility for the attacks on America’s fourth largest bank.
The online assault is the third in recent days after attacks were launched last week under the name Operation Ababil, meaning ‘swarm’.
Wells Fargo said in messages posted on Twitter that the website Sitedown.co received hundreds of complaints from customers who were locked out of the Wells Fargo website yesterday.
A spokeswoman said the bank was working hard to resolve the issues but declined to comment on the source of the problem.
The attack on Wells Fargo comes after the Cyber Fighters group hacked into and disrupted JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America.
The financial services industry group last week warned U.S. banks, brokerages and insurers to be on heightened alert for cyber attacks causing unexplained outages on their public websites.
Wells Fargo’s problems occurred on the same day that an unidentified person on the Internet called on ‘cyberspace workers’ to attack the bank’s site.
In a posting on pastebin.com, the person also warned of attacks later this week against U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group Inc.
A similar posting last week made threats against Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange.
The post said the attacks would continue until the film that had stirred up anti-U.S. protests across the Middle East was removed from the Internet.
A U.S. Bancorp spokesman said the bank was aware of the posting and was working closely with law enforcement authorities.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he believes Iran was behind the attacks.
Experts believe Iranian hackers have repeatedly attacked Bank of America, JPMorgan and Citigroup over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the U.S.
Source: Daily Mail
