Wells Fargo site hit by denial-of-service attack
The bank's Web site was the victim of a cyberattack yesterday, though the company says its physical branches and ATMs weren't affected.
Wells Fargo was the target of another distributed denial-of-service attack.
The bank's Web site was slowed down by the attack yesterday, affecting a certain number of customers, according to Fox Business News.
"Yesterday we saw an unusually high volume of Web site traffic which we believe was a denial of service attack," a Wells Fargo spokeswoman told CNET today. "The vast majority of customers were not impacted and customer information is safe. For customers who had difficulty accessing the site, we encouraged them to call us by phone, use ATMs or try logging on again as the disruption is usually intermittent. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience during that time."
The attack did not affect actual bank branches, ATMs, or mobile bank applications, according to Wells Fargo
The bank didn't reveal the source of the attack. But a group called Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters posted a warning on Pastebin yesterday, saying that it was launching denial of service attacks against several major U.S. banks, including BB&T, PNC, Chase, Citibank, U.S. Bancorp, Suntrust, Fifth Third Bancor, and Wells Fargo.
The group claims to be targeting banks in protest over the "Innocence of Muslims," a YouTube video that has aroused anger from those who consider it anti-Islam.
Wells Fargo and other banks were the victims of similar denial of service attacks last September. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters also claimed responsibility for those, vowing to continue the attacks until the "Innocence of Muslims" video is removed from the Internet.