WASHINGTON - The US government has warned US private financial services of an
al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against US online stock trading and banking Web
sites beginning Friday, officials said on Thursday.
An image taken from an Internet posting by al Qaeda's media
arm, al Sahab on September 11, 2006, shows Osama bin Laden speaking in an
unknown location. Bin Laden may be the leading symbol of global Islamist
militancy but the al Qaeda leader wields less influence over Islamist
ideology than more obscure religious thinkers, according to a new study
issued on Wednesday. [Reuters]
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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
US 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 US Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The US government said
the threat was to avenge the holding of suspected terrorists at the US prison in
Guantanamo.