Chase bank hit with denial-of-service attack
A customer uses an ATM outside of a Chase bank office on October 13, 2011 in Oakland, California.
JP Morgan Chase, a leading bank, was hit with a denial-of-service attack late Tuesday that took some of its services temporarily offline, a banking representative told CNET.
The Chase spokesperson did not provide any additional details, but NBC said the website was interrupted for some 90 minutes starting around 5 and lasting until 6:30 p.m. EST. The website showed an error message during that time.
Denial-of-service attacks occur when system servers become overloaded to the point of dysfunction, operations generally carried out by hackers in order to cripple or completely cut off service.
NBC said the al-Qassam Cyber Fighters took responsibility for the Chase attack.
The group reportedly announced the move as part of a project targeting nine top banks: Chase, Bank of America Citigroup, PNC Financial, U.S. Bancorp, BB&T and Capital One, Fifth Third Bancorp and Union Bank, according to FOX Business.
The banks are being hit because the United States has not blocked the anti-Islam footage ""Innocence of Muslims" on YouTube, said NBC.
US officials have criticized the film's content but have made no effort to take down the video.
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