[ by Larry Goldfarb ]

A series of of cyber attacks against Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Citibank have been attributed to Iran.  The attacks, which began in late 2011 and escalated this year, have primarily been "denial of service" campaigns that disrupted the banks' websites and corporate networks by overwhelming them with incoming web traffic, said the sources.  They said there was evidence suggesting the hackers targeted the three banks in retaliation for their enforcement of Western economic sanctions against Iran. Whether the hackers have been able to inflict more serious damage on computer networks or steal critical data is not yet known. 

Iran has beefed up its cyber capabilities after its nuclear program was damaged in 2010 by the Stuxnet virus, widely believed to have been developed by the United States.  Tehran has publicly advertised its intentions to build a cyber army and encouraged private citizens to hack against Western countries.  The attacks on the three largest U.S. banks originated in Iran, but it is not clear if they were launched by the state, groups working on behalf of the government, or "patriotic" citizens, according to the sources, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

A U.S. financial services industry group this week warned banks, brokerages and insurers to be on heightened alert for cyber attacks after the websites of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase experienced service disruptions. Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on F riday that he believes Iran was behind the attacks.  "I think this was done by Iran and the Quds Force, which has its own developing cyber attack capability," Mr. Lieberman said during a taping of C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program. The Quds Force is a covert arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Security experts said Iran's cyber capabilities are not as sophisticated as those of China, Russia, the United States or many of its Western allies.  Jim Lewis, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer, said Iran has been testing its cyber technology against Israel and other Gulf states in recent years.  "It's like the nuclear program: It isn't particularly sophisticated but it makes progress every year," said Mr. Lewis, who is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

For further details, go to [Zawya, 9/21/12].