American officials now appear to be convinced that Iran is behind the cyberattacks and hacking of US banks, according to a report by the New York Times.
Several banks, including HSBC, Citigroup and Bank of America, have been hit by DDoS attacks in recent months, which have paralyzed websites and made it nearly impossible for customers to access their bank accounts. A group called “Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters” has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but there is no evidence that customer funds were spared.
According to a former US official from the State and Commerce departments, it is believed that Tehran was actually behind the attacks.
“There is no doubt within the U.S. government that Iran is behind these attacks,” said former U.S. official James A. Lewis, now a computer security expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
American intelligence officials say Iran is carrying out the attacks in retaliation for Western economic sanctions, but also in retaliation for malware that has hit their own services and that they believe originated in America (see Flame, Duqu, and Stuxnet which hit an Iranian nuclear facility in the past).
The packets sent by the attackers were extremely large, suggesting they were using entire datacenters that were routed through a botnet. Exactly how the attackers gained access to the datacenters “is still a mystery,” the Times reports.
The hackers stated that they had no intention of stopping their attacks on US banks, claiming that “none of the US banks will be safe anymore.”
