U.S. warns of possible Qaeda financial cyber attack

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews
<http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-11
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&storyID=2006-11-30T233344Z_01_WBT006236_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-USA-QAEDA.xml
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has warned U.S. private financial
services of an al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against U.S. online stock
trading and banking Web sites beginning Friday, officials said on Thursday.

The officials -- a person familiar with the warning and a spokesman for the
Department of Homeland Security -- said the Islamic militant group aimed to
penetrate and destroy the databases of the U.S. stock market and banking Web
sites.

Homeland Security said it had no evidence to corroborate the threat but had
issued the warning out of an "abundance of caution". The department said in
a statement that the threat was for all of December.

"There is no information to corroborate this aspirational threat. As a
routine matter and out of an abundance of caution, US-CERT issued the
situational awareness report to industry stakeholders," said Homeland
Security spokesman Russ Knocke.

US-CERT is the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The U.S. government
said the threat was to avenge the holding of suspected terrorists at the
U.S. prison in Guantanamo.

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