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US officials blame Iran for cyber assault

by on10 January 2013



Dozens of banking sites affected


US officials believe Iran is behind a series of cyber attacks carried out against dozens of American banks.

The attacks were coordinated and staged by networks of hijacked computers in data center, prompting security researches to conclude that they were carried out by a foreign government rather than a few bored hackers.

“There is no doubt within the U.S. government that Iran is behind these attacks,” security expert James A. Lewis told the New York Times. Lewis said the volume of traffic flooding the sites pointed to a massive attack, much bigger than Russia’s cyber attack against Estonia in 2007.

The attacks started in September and they targeted numerous banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Capital One, HSBC and others. The method of choice was DDoS attacks carried out by data centers in an effort to disturb cloud operations.

However, there was not much public outcry over the attacks, probably because average Americans hate bankers quite a bit more than Iranian mullahs.

More here.

Last modified on 10 January 2013
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