Anonymous hackers launch cyber attack on Bank of Greece … no money taken
The activist group Anonymous shut down the website of the Greek Central Bank yesterday, according to a report from Reuters, after it launched a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on the institution.
“The attack lasted for a few minutes and was successfully tackled by the bank’s security systems,” an official said, adding that because the event took place on a public holiday not many people noticed.
Anonymous, whose activities range from hacking to anti-austerity marches, threatened that more attacks would be on the cards – in a YouTube video packed full with smatterings of Hellenic code names for good measure.
“Like Icarus, the powers that be have flown too close to the sun, and the time has come to set the wings of their empire ablaze, and watch the system their power relies on come to a grinding halt and come crashing down around them.”
“Today we have continuously taken down the website of the Bank of Greece. This marks the start of a 30-day campaign against central bank sites across the world,” the video said.
In March, hackers broke into the central bank of Bangladesh and stole $81m (£56m) – and it would have been more had the cyber criminals not made a billion-dollar-typo.
Read more: The latest on Anonymous
DDOS attacks do not constitute a breach of an organisation’s servers or data, so the group will not have been able to get hold of information or cash stored by the bank.
Given Greece’s high-profile financial woes, who knows whether the hackers thought there just wasn’t much point in trying to get access to the empty online vaults.