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OpIcarus Continues As Anonymous Brings Down Bank of Cyprus

Hackers are serious about their plans to DDoS over 160 banks

May 6, 2016 00:10 GMT  ·  By
Anonymous attacks Central Bank of Cyprus
   Anonymous attacks Central Bank of Cyprus

Powerful DDoS attacks have flooded the website of the Central Bank of Cyprus, who's been unresponsive for the past hours.

The DDoS attack is part of the Anonymous #OpIcarus campaign, which the group re-engaged a few days ago, as an attempt to bring more attention to the elite class that's controlling the world via the financial sector.

The group's first target was the website of the Bank of Greece, which in the meantime has recovered, but not before the massive DDoS attacks made headlines in all of the world's top news publications. [Update: @JustAnotherNode, the hacker behind the DDoS flood on the Bank of Greece, told Softpedia that the attacks against the Bank of Greece have been re-engaged and they'll continue for a long, long time.]

The current DDoS attacks on the Central Bank of Cyprus are part of the Anonymous grand master plan, which was published online as a list of to-hit targets, among which the biggest names were the US Federal Reserve Bank, the World Bank, the IMF, the New York Stock Exchange, and Bank of England.

It remains to be seen if the groups mount any attacks on these bigger targets. The last hackers that carried out DDoS attacks against big US financial institutions were eventually found out, and the US pressed official charges. The hackers are said to have ties with the Iranian government.

As for the most recent attacks on the Central Bank of Cyprus, DragonSec, one of Anonymous' divisions, has taken responsibility for the DDoS barrage, but it may be possible that other groups were involved as well, which have not tweeted out their actions.