Is Iran Targeting Bank Of America And JPMorgan?

Forbes.com

As if the nation’s big banks didn’t have enough to deal with here at home now they’re apparently the target of Iranian hackers.

The Iranian hackers are going after the websites of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup as part of a cyber campaign, according to a report from Reuters which cites people familiar with the matter.

The attacks against banks started late last year and have increased this year with many of the disruptions being “denial of service” issues where the website is intentionally flooded with traffic, Reuters reports.

As recently as this week the websites of JPMorgan and Bank of America were experiencing outages that affected customers trying to access their accounts. NBC reported that a group in the Middle East has claimed credit for the disruptions in response to the anti-Islamic video making news lately. But one security source tells NBC that the statement is “a cover” for the Iranian government’s operations.

The reason behind the attacks is still unclear. “Whether the hackers have been able to inflict more serious damage on computer networks or steal critical data is not yet known. The sources said there was evidence suggesting the hackers targeted the banks in retaliation for their enforcement of Western economic sanctions against Iran,” Reuters notes.

A financial services security group warned banks of increased cyber-attacks. The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center raised its cyber threat level to “high” from “elevated” this week.

Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.