14 DAY TRIAL // Unnamed US intelligence officials are unhappy with the fact that the Obama administration has not responded in any way to the cyberattacks allegedly launched by Iran against United States financial institutions.
An official has told The Washington Free Beacon that the White House should do a better job in protecting corporations against such threats.
He has emphasized that the White House – which is in charge of directing counterattacks against nation states – has failed to take any action.
One reason for which the Obama administration is viewing the cyberattacks launched by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters against US financial institutions as a law enforcement matter instead of covert warfare might have something to do with the president’s conciliatory policies toward Iran.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters have initiated the second phase of Operation Ababil and the sites of numerous banks have already been disrupted. Their latest victims are Capital One, HSBC, Fifth Third Bank, Ally Financial and PNC Financial Group.
However, the hackers insist that they’re not sponsored by any state and that their only objective is to get the Innocence of Muslims movie removed from the Web.
In their last statement, they even suggested that US authorities should order the removal of the film for one week as an experiment to see if the attacks stopped.
In a November 2012 interview with Softpedia, the hacktivists – who claim to be a group made of “volunteer hackers which share the beliefs about insulting video and to protest against it” – insisted that they were not sponsored by any nation-state.
“U.S. prefers to merge the insult issue with this case to decrease the insulting burden and change it to a confrontation with its competitors. No country supports us,” they said at the time.