In slightly more than a week, hackers have been able to coordinate massive attacks that took down the websites of some of the best-known and biggest banks in the U.S.
The websites for Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and PNC Bank have all been hit by DDoS attacks since September 19, according to a report from
CNNMoney. And while these attacks have not exposed any banking customers' sensitive data experts also say they are likely the largest attacks in history. However, no groups, hacktivist or otherwise, have come forward to claim responsibility for the incidents.
"The volume of traffic sent to these sites is frankly unprecedented," Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the security firm CrowdStrike, told the news site. "It's 10 to 20 times the volume that we normally see, and twice the previous record for a denial of service attack."
Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for
Identity Theft 911, writes regularly on his blog about the dangers hackers pose to companies and consumers alike, and what those concerned about these attacks can do to better protect themselves in their wake.
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