US warns of Qaeda financial cyber attack

Washington: The US government warned on Thursday of a possible al-Qaeda call to attack US financial online services but said there was no evidence to suggest the effort could cause harm.

A person familiar with the warning said al-Qaeda may be aiming to penetrate and destroy the databases of US online stock trading and banking Web sites.

Reaction in the financial community was muted, with markets showing little or no reaction. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed an alert had been distributed but said there was no reason to believe the threat was credible.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a "situational awareness report to industry stakeholders," said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.

The warning said the threat called for attacks to begin on Friday and run through the month of December in retaliation for the United States keeping terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

None of the sources said where the threat was issued. "Denial of service is what it called for," said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Denial of service is when attackers try to prevent legitimate users from accessing a Web site.

They can do it by flooding network connections or filling up storage space so the Web site becomes paralyzed. The warning said the threat came from a group calling itself "ANHIAR al-Dollar."

A person familiar with the warning said the effort was related to al Qaeda and intended to avenge "Muslim brothers in the crusaders' Guantanamo prison camp."

Robert Albertson, a chief investment strategist for Sandler O'Neill & Partners in New York, said it was unlikely al Qaeda members could do serious harm to financial Web sites.

"I'm not saying there aren't precautions to be taken, but I just can't fathom how there would be serious havoc," he added.

A government source said government regulators were being briefed on the warning.

Johannes Ullrich, a cyber security expert at the Sans Institute research group, didn't put much stock in the threat, saying such warnings cropped up from time to time and that penetrating databases of financial institutions was far easier said than done.