Week 5 of Operation Ababil 2: SunTrust, HSBC, Fifth Third, PNC, ZionsBank Attacked

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters continue to launch attacks as part of the fifth week of their campaign dubbed Operation Ababil 2.

The latest targets are the websites of SunTrust, HSBC US, Fifth Third Bank, and PNC Financial Group.

While all of these organizations have been targeted before, this week the hacktivists have added another financial institution to their list of victims: ZionsBank.

Hilf-ol-Fozoul reports that the site of ZionsBank – an American bank, subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation – was inaccessible on Thursday.

In the meantime, US intelligence officials say they’re certain that this isn’t a hacktivist campaign launched in protest against the Innocence of Muslims movie, but a covert operation launched by Iran.

Experts from Incapsula have analyzed the attacks and they’ve found that the DDOS botnet used by the hackers is actually “for hire.” They’ve also learned that the attacks are so powerful because they rely on the resources of servers, not compromised personal computers as in most cases.