Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (Wikimedia)

The Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam, a group of cyber-attackers who have targeted Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange, allegedly struck J.P. Morgan Chase today. Fox Business reported on the site outage at Chase.com and consulted with Flashpoint Partners about the problems. Flashpoint told Fox that Chase's problems were probably due to a "sustained denial of service attack."

The religiously-motivated hackers, who claim they are responding to the anti-Muslim video, Innocence of Muslims, have published a new Pastebin page claiming credit for the Chase attack:

In the name of Allah the companionate the merciful

My soul is devoted to you Dear Prophet of Allah

"Operation Ababil" started over BoA :

http://pastebin.com/mCHia4W5
http://pastebin.com/wMma9zyG

In the second step we attacked the largest bank of the united states, the "chase" bank. These series of attacks will continue untill the Erasing of that nasty movie from the Internet.

The site "www.chase.com" is down and also Online banking at "chaseonline.chase.com" is being decided to be Offline !

Down with modern infidels.

### Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam ###

"Operation Ababil" was also the name of a failed Pakistani military operation that occurred in April, 1984.

Pakistan planned the maneuver (sometimes spelled "Operation Ababeel") as an effort to capture a glacier in the long-disputed region of Kashmir. India learned of the plan and managed to seize the area two days before Pakistan pulled the trigger on the mission.

Are the Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam hinting that they might be based in Pakistan? Not necessarily--the name of the operation could be a red herring.

The group's moniker may mean more than whatever they call their efforts against financial institutions; Izz ad-din Al qassam, according to Wikipedia, was the name of a Syrian-born "Muslim preacher who was a leader in the fight against British, French, and Zionist organizations in the Levant in the 1920s and 1930s."

Innocence of Muslims has been blocked in Pakistan and several other heavily Muslim countries but Google has refused to completely remove the film from the web.

Chillin' at AngelHack's spring hackathon. (Photo: flickr.com/angelhack2012

The latest entrant to New York's burgeoning roster of hackathons: AngelHack, which starts June 23. And the organizers have already wrangled quite a lineup of locals. Alex Taub and Michael Schonfeld from Dwolla will be running the event, with an assist from Erin Tao (Photo Hack Day), Frank Denbow (of Startup Weekend), and Angelhack's own Nick Frost. Rachel Sklar will MC. Judges include Lerer Ventures principal Steve Schlafman; NYC Seed director Owen Davis; and Thrive Capital investor Chris Paik.* Hackathon HQ will be Microsoft's midtown outpost.

As for the attendees, they've sold around 480 tickets, and, with some attrition expected, that puts the expected number of attendees around 300. "Our tickets aren't free, either -- we do have some free tickets, but the majority of those are paid. So we're pretty excited to see the turnout and what we can do in that space," Mr. Gopman said.

The breakdown among signups thus far is 70 percent developer, 15 percent business, 10 percent designer, and 5 percent user experience.

Nor do the festivities end there, because the New York hackathon is merely the first leg of a nationwide competition. Parallel events will also be happening in Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco. Local judges will choose the top seven or eight teams, who'll then get three weeks to refine their projects.

"We'll partner them with some mentors and some friends that we have that can help them basically do some user experience and product design and make their idea a more scalable idea," Mr. Gopman told us.

AngelHack will then fly winners to San Francisco, where 20 to 25 teams from around the country will compete in a final event on July 12. Judges include TechCrunch writers, Google Ventures partner Wesley Chan, and head of Facebook mobile developer relations James Pearce. Rewards await the most impressive teams: First and second place will receive $25,ooo in seed capital, as well as $60,000 in free Azure hosting (courtesy of sponsor Microsoft, which just kicked in two Bizspark Plus accounts as a grand prize). The event prize pool is up to $230,000, Mr. Gopman tells us.

Mr. Gopman is extremely confident about his event's prospects. "I think we're going to have the best hackathon to ever take place in New York," he told Betabeat.  "The numbers are up there, the people running it are up there, the prizes are up there, the judges are pretty solid."

New York, that sure sounds like a challenge.

*Disclosure.

(foxnews.com)

Well, there’s one thing former LulzSec ringleader Hector Xavier Monsegur, AKA Sabu, doesn’t have to worry about any more. The AP reports a judge has agreed to dismiss his impersonation case, contingent on six months of good behavior.

The impersonation charge is only indirectly related to Mr. Monsegur’s hacking. Asked for ID by a cop back in February, he allegedly told him, "Relax. I am a federal agent." That, as it turns out, was a mistake, though only a misdemeanor.

Of course, there’s also the infinitely more serious matter of Mr. Monsegur’s federal charges, which are most definitely related to his hacking. When originally busted last June, his prospects looked pretty bleak: He was facing well over a century in prison. But rolling over on the rest of LulzSec should help at least a little.

But that cooperation does have its downside. The 28-year-old hacker-turned-snitcher wasn’t at his hearing to hear the good news, and his lawyer cited safety concerns to the court. And there are plenty of people who are none too pleased with Sabu: Five of his onetime compatriots still face justice. Apparently the threats are bad enough that federal prosecutors have discussed the possibility of the witness protection program.

All in all: Sucks to be Sabu.