American Express customers trying to gain access to their online accounts Thursday were met with blank screens or an ominous ancient type face.
The company confirmed that its Web site had come under attack.
The assault, which took American Express offline for two hours, was the latest in an intensifying campaign of unusually powerful attacks on American financial institutions that began last September and have taken dozens of them offline intermittently, costing millions of dollars.
JPMorgan Chase was taken offline by a similar attack this month. And last week, a separate, aggressive attack incapacitated 32,000 computers at South Korea’s banks and television networks.
The culprits of these attacks, officials and experts say, appear intent on disabling financial transactions and operations.
Corporate leaders have long feared online attacks aimed at financial fraud or economic espionage, but now a new threat has taken hold: attackers, possibly with state backing, who seem bent on destruction.
“The attacks have changed from espionage to destruction,” said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training organization. “Nations are actively testing how far they can go before we will respond.”
Security experts who studied the attacks said that it was part of the same campaign that took down the Web sites of JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and others over the last six months. A group that calls itself the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters has claimed responsibility for those attacks.
The group says it is retaliating for an anti-Islamic video posted on YouTube last fall. But American intelligence officials and industry investigators say they believe the group is a convenient cover for Iran. Just how tight the connection is — or whether the group is acting on direct orders from the Iranian government — is unclear. Government officials and bank executives have failed to produce a smoking gun.
North Korea is considered the most likely source of the attacks on South Korea, though investigators are struggling to follow the digital trail, a process that could take months. The North Korean government of Kim Jong-un has openly declared that it is seeking online targets in its neighbor to the south to exact economic damage.
Representatives of American Express confirmed that the company was under attack Thursday, but said that there was no evidence that customer data had been compromised. A representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not respond to a request for comment on the American Express attack.
Spokesmen for JPMorgan Chase said they would not talk about the recent attack there, its origins or its consequences. JPMorgan has openly acknowledged previous denial of service attacks. But the size and severity of the most recent one apparently led it to reconsider.
The Obama administration has publicly urged companies to be more transparent about attacks, but often security experts and lawyers give the opposite advice.
The largest contingent of instigators of attacks in the private sector, government officials and researchers say, remains Chinese hackers intent on stealing corporate secrets.
The Latest Bing News on:
Cyberattacks
- Forum highlights need to secure telecom networks from cyberattacks in Omanon April 19, 2024 at 4:45 am
MUSCAT: The fourth edition of the Oman Cybersecurity Conference took place here yesterday, Thursday, April 18, 2024, under the auspices of Shaikh Ghassan bin Hilal al Alawi, head of the State ...
- Cyberattacks continue to rise but security firms vigilanton April 18, 2024 at 10:03 pm
For Rory Ebanks, director of cybersecurity at Symptai Consulting, he endorsed the findings of the Fortinet report agreeing that the nature, frequency and types of cyberattacks have grown tremendously ...
- Cyberattacks posing real challenges to authorities, businesseson April 18, 2024 at 9:39 pm
The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) is warning about high risks of foxy cyberattacks as opposed to the somewhat indifference of the public on this matter.
- Rural Texas towns report cyberattacks that caused one water system to overflowon April 18, 2024 at 4:33 pm
A hack that caused a small Texas town’s water system to overflow in January has been linked to a shadowy Russian hacktivist group ...
- Cyberattacks Emphasize Importance of Proactive Protection Effortson April 18, 2024 at 11:28 am
In the aftermath of the Change Healthcare ransomware attack, affected providers are doing their best to resume normal operations and looking for proactive measures to protect them in the future. The ...
- UnitedHealth Group posts $1.2B loss related to Change Healthcare cyberattackson April 17, 2024 at 9:25 pm
As Change Healthcare reels from ongoing cybersecurity breaches, UnitedHealth Group executives reassured stakeholders.
- Biden admin, U.S. ports prep for cyberattacks as nationwide infrastructure is targetedon April 17, 2024 at 1:48 pm
Top Biden administration cybersecurity officials and national port executives discussed hacking threats as more infrastructure across the country is targeted.
- Russia-linked hackers claim cyberattacks on U.S., French and Polish water utilitieson April 17, 2024 at 11:45 am
A politically motivated hacking group behind a recent series of cyberattacks on water systems in the United States, Poland and France is now believed to be connected to the Russian military, ...
- Emergency services a likely target for cyberattacks, warns DHSon April 17, 2024 at 11:09 am
Emergency services are increasingly likely targets for cyberattacks, warns the Department of Homeland Security.
- The Paris Olympics’ One Sure Thing: Cyberattackson April 16, 2024 at 6:18 am
We will be attacked,” the official responsible for fending off cyberthreats said. To prepare, organizers have been hosting war games and paying “bug bounties” to hackers.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Cyberattacks
[google_news title=”” keyword=”cyberattacks” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
[/vc_column_text]
The Latest Bing News on:
Denial-of-service attack
- What developers can learn from the largest DDoS attack in historyon April 19, 2024 at 4:23 am
To prevent DDoS attacks, patch vulnerabilities, set proactive and reactive security measures, and collaborate with others within your industry.
- Attack on Data: How Industries are Suffering Due to a 32% Jump in Harmful Botson April 19, 2024 at 1:08 am
According to the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report, bad bot traffic levels rose for the fifth consecutive year, indicating an alarming trend ...
- Rural Texas towns report cyberattacks that caused one water system to overflowon April 18, 2024 at 4:33 pm
A hack that caused a small Texas town’s water system to overflow in January has been linked to a shadowy Russian hacktivist group ...
- Hackers launch brute-force attacks on business VPNs and moreon April 18, 2024 at 1:30 am
A wave of brute-force attacks targeting critical business systems has cybersecurity experts urging organisations to tighten their defences.
- Brute-force attacks surge worldwide, warns Cisco Taloson April 17, 2024 at 1:44 pm
While a longstanding method, the scale and systematic execution of the attacks signify an escalation, security pros said.
- Tech founder hints at DDoS attacks on solanaon April 17, 2024 at 9:53 am
Nelson highlighted the robust role solana has played in attracting millions of investors to Web3, noting its status as a significant altcoin. "I think it has done a lot to onboard millions of ...
- DDoS attacks spike in first quarteron April 17, 2024 at 6:43 am
Fifty percent more distributed denial-of-service attacks have been launched by threat actors during the first quarter of 2024 over the same period last year, with thwarted DDoS attacks increasing by ...
- DDoS attacks saw a huge surge in the first part of 2024, with one particular country badly hiton April 17, 2024 at 4:09 am
D istributed denial of service ( DDoS) attacks saw a significant increase during the first quarter of 2024, with one European country being particularly badly hit, new research has claimed.
- Cloudflare reports 50% first-quarter increase in distributed denial-of-service attackson April 16, 2024 at 6:00 am
A new report from content delivery network provider Cloudflare Inc. today details a disturbing rise in distributed denial-of-service attacks in the first quarter, including a surge of attacks against ...
- Almost a third of charities experienced a cyber breach or attack in last 12 months, survey findson April 12, 2024 at 12:37 am
Around a third of charities (32%) have experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months, according to government data. This is much higher for high-income charities with ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Denial-of-service attack
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Denial-of-service attack” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]