US based Ally Financial became the latest bank to face cyber attack launched by a group calling itself Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam.
A spokeswoman for Ally Financial was quoted by Reuters as saying that the bank was investigating the unusual traffic on its website.
The group said that the attacks were in response to a video uploaded in Google’s YouTube attacking the Prophet Muhammad and offending some Muslims.
Apart from Ally, several other US banks including Capital One Financial, BB&T and HSBC Bank USA have faced cyber attacks recently.
Network security firm Radware vice president Carl Herberger was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the banks’ websites have been disrupted with so-called denial of service attacks, some of which originated in Iran and Russia.
Recently, US defence secretary Leon Panetta had warned that the country could face a ‘cyber-Pearl Harbor’ and had drafted new rules which would enable military to move quickly to thwart any such attacks.
Earlier this month, security researchers found that the websites of major US banks, which faced repeated online banking disturbances, were hacked using advanced and diverse tools that hints at a coordinated campaign.
In September this year, Iran has rejected reports by the US officials claiming its involvement in hacking into several US banks that include Bank of America, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo over the past year as part of their broad cyber operation.