[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly vicious, while the U.S. government issues more warnings that grow in intensity.  American Express is the latest victim in a series of attacks on American financial institutions that date back to last September and have cost U.S. business millions of dollars.  For 2 hours on Thursday, Amex customers who tried to log into their online accounts were greeting either with blank screens or ominous ancient-type faces.  Earlier last month, attacks took JPMorgan Chase offline and suspended 32,000 computers at South Korean banks and TV networks. 

Is this beginning of the end?   According to Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training organization, "The attacks have changed from espionage to destruction.  Nations are actively testing how far they can go before we will respond."

Security experts who have studied the attacks say they are part of a larger campaign that crippled the sites of JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and others over the last 6 months.  One group, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, has taken credit for the attacks, saying it is retaliating for an anti-Islamic video posted on YouTube last fall. 

However, American intelligence officials and industry investigators believe the group is a convenient cover for Iran.  South Korea, meanwhile, attributes its attacks to adversary North Korea, which publicly said it seeks to exacts economic damage to online targets based in its neighbor to the south.

NYTimes writers Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger say it's likely that Iran and North Korea are behind the attacks - "because of their brazenness."   Computer security expert James Lewis agrees, saying "These countries are pursuing cyberweapons the same way they are pursuing nuclear weapons.  It’s primitive; it’s not top of the line, but it’s good enough and they are committed to getting it."

Mr. Lewis adds that our biggest problem may be our ignorance: "We don’t know how they make decisions. When you add erratic decision making, then you really have something to worry about."

For further details, go to [NY Times, 3/29/13].

To contact Melanie Gretchen: melanie@compliance-insights.com.