CIO.com, October 04, 2011
Are the
problems with Bank of America's website part of the Occupy Wall Street
protests? If not then It's just a matter of time before someone brings the
increasingly popular movement to the online world.
Now in
their 18th day, the peaceful anti-Wall Street protests are already a nation wide phenomenon. From New York it has spread to a dozen cities, including Boston,
St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Los Angeles.
Meanwhile,
BofA's website was crippled from Friday until Monday and even today people are
being advised to expect delays when using it. The bank has repeatedly said this
wasn't the result of hacking or malware.
However, it
sure looks like a denial of service attack and BofA has yet to offer any
alternative explanationa. The timing is also suspicious. The problems began the
day after the bank announced a new fee for debit card users. Customer
displeasure over the fee has been loud and widespread. As H.L. Mencken once
observed, "It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you
know that you would lie if you were in his place."
If this is
related to the Wall Street protests it would mean the online demonstrations are
a lot more malicious than the real world version. So far the P2P protesters
have been content to freely assemble, shout and wave signs or otherwise
exercise the freedom of speech. (If they have gone beyond this it hasn't been
reported in the press.)
It's no
surprise that Anonymous has jumped on the bandwagon. Someone claiming to be the
group vowed to retaliate and "erase the NYSE" after video showing
police officers using pepper spray on protesters surfaced on the internet. The Atlantic reported today that someone else claiming to be Anonymous said the
threat is a fake, designed to discredit the protests. For further claims and
counter-claims follow #InvadeWallStreet on Twitter. (It's hard to believe you
don't have something better to do, though.)
Regardless
of the Anony non-sense, it is clearly only a matter of time before someone will
hack a financial or government website and say Occupy Wall Street is the cause.
The Department of Homeland Security - or someone claiming to be them - has warned companies that attacks may be coming. That probably means the threat
level has been set to greenback.
Even
without doing anything malicious, Occupy Wall Street is using the web to its
advantage. Vibe, an anonymous version of Twitter, is being used for some
communications. The software lets users set how far the messages are available
- they can be sent 30 feet away or globally. Users can also set the messages to
self-destruct after a certain amount of time, making it that much more
difficult for law enforcement to track.
However the
most effective online action so far is taking place at agitprop sites like
WeAreThe99Percent. There people are posting pictures of themselves holding a
piece of paper telling how they've been hit by the Non-Recovery. That kind of
thing is far more effective than hack attacks because it can change minds.
Constantine
von Hoffman writes CIO.com's IT Security Hack blog. Follow Constantine on
Twitter @CurseYouKhan. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and
on Facebook. Email Constantine at cvon@areporter.com.
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| Other protests have been held in Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago |
 |
Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein testifies before the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee hearing on ''Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks'' on Capitol Hill in Washington April 27, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed) |
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