REPORT
Cyber Attacks on U.S Financial Institutions
The American banking industry has begun to examine the impact of these attacks on its “brands”. It is ASSESSED that the impact of the attacks is not a marketing issue but rather a psychological warfare issue.
On June 3 and 4 open DNS providers were attacked during part of the attack on U.S. Financial institutions. Prolexic, a company that specializes in mitigating DNS attacks, has announced that the attacks peaked at a bandwidth of 167 Gbps during a DNS Reflection Attack. This attack marks a new phase in coordination and major increase in demonstrated capability. These attacks are becoming a major threat to the financial structure of the United States, and more generally western financial institutions.
Report Focus
This Focus Report: reviews the most recent attacks, the impact of these attacks, and provides analysis, and assessment of the attackers.We have all heard the phrase: “where there is smoke there is fire…”. The attacks on the American financial system have been underway for more than a year. The attackers have blocked access to a number of companies, at least temporarily. The attacks are increasing in capability. The U.S. Media is covering these attacks, which adds to theirimpact.
The F.B.I. briefed bank security officers in May, an item that was published in the American media. The aggregate impact of the attacks over time is a progressive loss of confidence in the American financial system. It is ASSESSED that given success against a major American institution, there will be a loss of confidence in the system as well as the breached institution
Further Information
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