Anon News reported that a gang of hackers affiliated to the Anonymous collective have taken down the Bank of England’s internal email server as part of an operation named “OpIcarus”. In addition, it was claimed that the websites of the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the central banks of Sweden, Myanmar and Laos have also been enslaved.
The senior director at Corero Network Security – Stephanie Weagle, stated:
“While the impact on the individual targets of the DDoS attack campaign, “OpIcarus” is unclear; obstructing or eliminating the availability of email servers is significant. In an online world any type of service outage is barely tolerated, especially in the banking industry where transactions and communications are often time-sensitive, and account security is of utmost importance.”
According to a statement about OpIcarus which came out in January, the power behind the throne lies “within the global financial system, centered within the New York Stock Exchange and Bank of England”.
The statement went on saying:
“We must strike at the heart of their empire by once again throwing a wrench into the machine, but this time we face a much bigger target; the global financial system. This time our target is the New York Stock Exchange and Bank of England.”
“This is a call to arms my brothers who for too long have stood for nothing but have criticized everything. Stand now, behind the banner of free men against the tyrannical matrix of institutions that oppose us. Ready your weapons and aim them at the New York Stock Exchange and Bank of England. This is the operation to end all others. Innocent people may stand to lose something from this but the powers that be stand to lose much more.”
