From: Charlotte News & Observer
By Andrew Dunn
The latest waves of cyber attacks against U.S. banks – like the one that stalled Wells Fargo’s website for part of Tuesday afternoon – appear to be growing larger and more sophisticated, industry experts say.
The “denial of service” attacks, which flood a bank’s website with traffic to lock out legitimate customers, now tend to target more banks over the course of a day or week. They also may change their tactics hour by hour, making it harder for banks to get their sites back up.
Banks have said little publicly about the attacks, beyond assuring customers that their data is safe. But companies that specialize in bank security say banks are investing more heavily in systems aimed at preventing them.
“This is the longest cyber attack on an industry sector that we’ve ever experienced on the face of the earth,” said Carl Herberger, vice president of security solutions at Radware, which works with banks and other companies on security.
“No longer are these attacks being shrugged off by any of the commercial banks. People understand it’s really serious.”
Charlotte-based Bank of America has disclosed in regulatory filings that it’s been the victim of cyber attacks, and its website has periodically malfunctioned during times when the attacks were frequent.
Before this week, Wells had been the victim of apparent attacks in September and December, according to news accounts. Asked about Tuesday’s website slowdown, a Wells spokesman said the bank believes it experienced a denial of service attack, and that customer information is safe.
Winston-Salem’s BB&T has also said it’s been subject to denial of service attacks. PNC Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Regions and SunTrust have also been targeted, according to Bank Info Security, a trade publication that tracks the issue.
Leave a Reply