The US government has warned of possible al Qaeda cyber attacks against online stock trading and banking sites:
The source, a person familiar with the warning, said the Islamic militant group aimed to penetrate and destroy the databases of the U.S. financial sites.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed an alert had been distributed but said there was no reason to believe the threat was credible.
The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a “situational awareness report to industry stakeholders,” said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.
The warning said the threat called for attacks to begin Friday and run through the month of December in retaliation for the United States keeping terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
“Denial of service is what it called for,” said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A person familiar with the warning said the threat came from a group calling itself “ANHIAR al-Dollar.” The effort was related to al Qaeda and intended to avenge “Muslim brothers in the crusaders’ Guantanamo prison camp,” the source said.
They can’t use real bombs, so they are forced to revert to cyber bombs.
