Iran Blamed for Cyberattacks: Electronic Assaults on U.S. Banks, Foreign Energy Firms

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 12, 2012 | SIOBHAN GORMAN And JULIAN E. BARNES

[billorites]

Iranian hackers with government ties have mounted cyberattacks against American targets in recent months, escalating a low-grade cyberwar, U.S. officials say.

The Iranian effort culminated in a series of recent attacks against U.S. banks as well as electronic assaults this year on energy companies in the Persian Gulf. The attacks bore "signatures" that allowed U.S. investigators to trace them to the Iranian government, the officials said.

The hackers appear to be a network of fewer than 100 Iranian computer-security specialists at universities and network security companies in Iran, investigators said.

Iranian officials didn't return a call seeking comment.

U.S. officials said detailed evidence linking the attacks to Tehran is classified. But Iranian hackers don't have the resources to mount major attacks without the support and technical expertise of the government, the officials said.

"These are not ordinary Iranians," one senior U.S. official said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta alluded to the Iranian cyberattacks in a policy announcement this week on U.S. efforts to counter the threat. He didn't directly finger Iran in these attacks, but said they mark "a significant escalation." Mr. Panetta, in an address in New York, outlined procedures being put into place to block such attacks, identify attackers and retaliate, if necessary.

"They have been going after everyone—financial services, Wall Street," said a senior defense official. "Is there a cyberwar going on? It depends on how you define 'war.'"

The attacks against U.S. banks were so-called denial of service attacks, in which computers are programmed to bombard a particular website and knock it off line. But investigators fear that they represent a first step to more destructive electronic assaults, which already had been mounted on a Saudi oil company.

The attacks began early this year in what some officials surmised was retaliation for harsh sanctions

[Kartographer]

I posted a similar post a day or two ago and many didn’t see the big deal. Well just let the hackers bring down or cripple the banking system at the first of the month and stop Debit, Credit and EBT cards from working just for a few days and you will quickly see what a BIG deal this will become.

[Solar Wind]

Thanks for posting. This is important information to know.

I have had two of my accounts hacked in the past few weeks. My provider told me specifically it was a hack from Iran.

Islam's way of waging war is to attack their targets economically. They have done it for centuries.

Please learn from Dr Warner. It opened my eyes even wider to the methods of Islam.

Why We Are Afraid, A 1400 Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner

[proxy_user]

No possible with the firepower at their disposal. A major bank has a pair of load-balanced data centers on different networks, with 1000 web servers in one data center, and 1000 web servers in the other data center. Each web server can handle hundreds of connections a second.

They can produce a slowdown if they attack only one or two banks at a time, but if they scatter their forces it is barely noticeable.

[Kartographer]

I love people who claim stuff is not possible, especial when talking about electronics and computer systems.

Many banks have done it to themselves by accident and those computer centers they are going to off load to were do you think they are? most are overseas in places these people could already be working at.

[Solar Wind]

Kartographer, Thanks. I recall reading your post as well.

This is serious stuff. It is hitting us directly

I learned from Dr Warner that Islam specifically targets the economic underpinnings of their enemies.

Recall that the 2001 attack on us was to the World Trade Center. That was their second attack on the WTC so it was a really high priority target for Islam.

[Kartographer]

Impossible! You mean to say that a handful of under powered Jihadist managed to bring down the World Trade Towers? How could they?

[Kartographer]

Well you are at least in good company:

When we set the upper limit of PC-DOS at 640K, we thought nobody would ever need that much memory. — William Gates, chairman of Microsoft

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (

[Solar Wind]

This is no longer barely noticeable. This is a war of a thousand cuts and the cuts are adding up.

Imagine thousands of personal PayPal accounts shut down. Imagine thousands of on-line bank accounts and credit cards shut down due to hacking attempts. Imagine denial of service to on-line banking service and having to do it the old way with the paper register booklet in your checkbook.

This is happening right now. The banks are feeling it. Their IT departments are having to deal with it. Customers are having to deal with it. And it is not just banks. It is all on-line commerce.

We are at war.

[khelus]

And . . .

Iranian, Chinese Computers Also Discovered to Have Been Hacking D.C. Internet Voting System

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8118

Aren’t you all happy our government and financial institution decided to to cut corners on IT by out sourcing an in sourcing the work?