Al-Qaeda Cyber Attack

[Christina]

Homeland Security justhas issued a warning to all Banking and Financial Institutionsthat there may be a Al-Qaeda Cyber attack planned for month of Dec.CNN reporting

 

[Christina]

November 30, 2006NBC News and news servicesWASHINGTON - The U.S. government has notified U.S. private financial services of a call by the al-Qaida terrorist network for a cyber attack against U.S. online stock trading and banking Web sites beginning Friday, officials said.Almost immediately, however, other officials downplayed the risk of any danger to U.S. financial institutions.NBC News' Pete Williams reported that a unit of the Homeland Security Department sent out an advisory to banks, saying that a jihadist Web site posted an “aspirational” item, which said it would be a good thing to carry out cyber attacks on the U.S. financial industry to retaliate for abuses at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.The item was one posting on a Web site that expressed a desire, and is not thought to be in any way imminent or actual.Two officials — a person familiar with the warning and a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security — said the group aimed to penetrate and destroy the databases of the U.S. stock market and banking Web sites.Homeland Security said it had no evidence to corroborate the threat but had issued the warning out of an "abundance of caution." The department said in a statement that the threat was for all of December."There is no information to corroborate this aspirational threat. As a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution, US-CERT issued the situational awareness report to industry stakeholders," said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.US-CERT is the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The U.S. government said the threat was to avenge the holding of suspected terrorists at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

[Broken Crusader]

Thanks Kriss for the heads up, although it seems rather unlikely, it reminds us of how vulnerable we are.Here in Montreal, we have a very extensive electronic banking system. I pay all my bills on-line, except to gas up for receipts, I never use cash, we all pay with our bank debit cards.If something happened tomorrow, I'd be kinda messed up.Maybe money under the pillow isn't a bad thing.

 

[HammerStone]

I don't have a credit or debit card for a reason. I jump between cash and check and I mostly use cash. I guess working with technology gives me the perspective but honestly any server in the world can be hacked by the right person. I don't think that they're sophisticated enough to do too much damage yet, but it's a possibility.

 

[Christina]

(Broken Crusader;4452)
Thanks Kriss for the heads up, although it seems rather unlikely, it reminds us of how vulnerable we are.Here in Montreal, we have a very extensive electronic banking system. I pay all my bills on-line, except to gas up for receipts, I never use cash, we all pay with our bank debit cards.If something happened tomorrow, I'd be kinda messed up.Maybe money under the pillow isn't a bad thing.
Your welcome Mending CrusaderI'd be in the same shape as you guess there somethig to be said for those old folks that used to stash cash in their mattresses