Wells Fargo's logo. (flickr/Neubie)

Earlier this week the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters announced new distributed denial of service (DDos) attacks on U.S. banks, part of what they've referred to as Phase 2 of their "Operation Ababil." It appears that they have been true to their word.

As of 1:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, virtually all of the most recent site outage reports on SiteDown.co, one of the largest website outage notification services, were for either Wells Fargo or Bank of America. Comments from Wells Fargo customers ranged from the questioning--"What idiots do you hire to manage to your website?" to the timely: "Did the mayans shut down wells fargo as well no world no monies (sic)."

The al-Qassam Cyber Fighters have repeatedly denied they are working for Iran, even though many security experts say the size of their attacks indicates state sponsorship. In various posts, usually published on Pastebin, the cyber attackers insist their efforts against American banks continue because Google will not remove the anti-Islam video Innocence of Muslims from the Internet in any country where they are not legally required to do so.

The actual impact on banks by the continued denial of service (four days of outages for Wells Fargo this week) is still unclear. A report by Bank Info Security about the first wave of attacks from the al-Qassam Cyber Fighters in October indicated that in addition to inconvenience and customer loss, there is a danger that DDoS outages could be distractions for real hack attacks, in which customer funds are covertly transferred away, possibly to support future cyber espionage.

Whatever is really going on with the Cyber Fighters, it is clear that some banks are still unprepared for their onslaught, and customers are angry. An anonymous user on SiteDown.com likely spoke for many, writing, "Unable to log on to Bill Pay; 4th day and counting; Wells: you need significant help here; do something quick!"

Muslim cleric Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (Wikimedia)

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters have returned with a new declaration published on Pastebin and a new set of targets. If you park your money with Wells Fargo and can’t reach the bank’s website, you apparently can blame the hackers and their Operation Ababil.

The group's Pastebin post renewed their call for the anti-Muslim video Innocence of Muslims to be removed from the web. They also refuted allegations their actions have been state-sponsored by Iran, stating that they "strongly reject the American officials' insidious attempts to deceive public opinion."

The Cyber Fighters went on to give a timetable for their attacks and urged others to join the fight:

We shall attack for 8 hours daily, starting at 2:30 PM GMT, every day. We repeat again the attacks will continue for sure till the removal of that sacrilegious movie.

We invite all cyberspace workers to join us in this Proper Act. If America's arrogant government do not submit, the attack will be large and larger and will include other evil countries like Israel, French and U.Kingdom indeed.

Several large financial institutions can expect to go the way of WellsFargo.com, which was timing out for users accessing the page from multiple locations on Tuesday afternoon.

The bank acknowledged the problem and posted the following on its Twitter account around 4 p.m. ET:

We apologize to customers who may be experiencing limited access to @wellsfargo.com & online banking. We are working to quickly…

— Wells Fargo (@WellsFargo) September 25, 2012

resolve this issue. Customers can still access their accounts through our ATMs, stores and by phone at 800-956-4442.

— Wells Fargo (@WellsFargo) September 25, 2012

Muslim Cyber Fighters say they will also target the following:

Wednesday 9/26/2012 : attack to U.S. Bank site, www.usbank.com
Thursday 9/27/2012 : attack to PNC site, www.pnc.com

Past cyber-attacks for which this group claims responsibility struck Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.

While the problems for the larger banks were intermittent, the Wells Fargo attack seems to have been the most effective so far, indicating the group may be improving their methods.