Iranian Hacktivist Group Suspends Bank DDoS Attacks.
Iranian Hacktivist Group
Suspends Bank DDoS Attacks.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, an Iranian hacktivist group that has claimed responsibility
for a wave of DDoS attacks against large financial institutions, has claimed
victory in their cyber war after a video said to be insulting to Islam was
taken offline, and as a result said it has suspended attacks against US banks.
While
the video has been removed from YouTube, and the group celebrates, the halt in
DDoS attacks might not last. In a statement, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam called a
ceasefire, but warned that additional copies of the video needed to be taken
down.
“This is a clear
indication of progress and establishment of logic instead of obstinacy. This
positive move is a humanitarian effort and in line with paying respect to
divine religions which has made billions of people love them; and it's a
becoming and proper action... The al-Qassam cyber fighters lauds this positive
measure of YouTube and on this basis suspends his operation and plans to give a
time to Google and U.S. government to remove the other copies of film as well,”
the statement read in part.
Research into the
group’s methods suggested that they were using
hijacked datacenter accounts, and not large botnets, in order to pull off
the massive DDoS campaign. The DDoS wave started towards the end of the summer
last year, picking-up pace in
October. None of the nation’s financial giants were exempt, as traffic
flooded the websites maintained by Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo,
U.S. Bancorp, PNC, Capital One, and Fifth Third Bank.
Earlier this month, a
report in the New York Times said
that Iran was behind the attacks, a claim that Iran flatly denied. "The
Islamic republic of Iran categorically denies any involvement in cyber attacks
on American banks and denounces such methods which are a violation of the
sovereignty of nations," a statement from the Nation’s UN mission said.
For now the DDoS attacks
have stopped, but it’s unclear if al-Qassam will keep their word, or if others
won’t conduct attacks on their own under the group’s name.
