Al-Qaeda Cyber Threat: A Cause for Caution, Not Alarm

By NewsFactor Network | December 1, 2006

The U.S. government has warned banking, stock trading, and other financial Web sites of a potential cyber attack today, but officials and experts alike caution against undue alarm.

According to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and private industry, threats were found on an Islamist Web site calling for attacks against U.S. financial Web sites through December, until the “infidel new year.”

CERT was begun in 2003 to thwart cyber attacks and guard the networks and Web sites that comprise the nation’s Internet infrastructure.

Caution, Not Alarm

The warning, while not to be taken lightly, was not a cause for alarm either, according to U.S. officials. “It was sent to banking and financial stakeholders out of an abundance of caution,” said Joanna Gonzalez of the Department of Homeland Security. She added that CERT warnings, which are sent by e-mail and RSS, are common.

The Department of Homeland Security’s published threat level remains at yellow, or elevated, in the exact middle of the five-point scale that runs from green on the low end to red on the high.

The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which examines threats to the financial industry, set its threat level for online financial attacks to low, where it has been since November 29th when it was lowered from blue, or guarded, to green.

The Center has advised financial groups to “update their antivirus signature on a daily basis and to ensure that they have applied the latest security patches from their software vendors” — all standard measures in the post-9/11 environment.

No Joking Matter

Not all cyber-threats come from Jihadist Web sites. And, not all are real, either.

In October, Jake J. Brahm, a 20-year-old Wisconsin grocery clerk, was accused of posting dozens of online threats claiming that dirty bombs would explode during…

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