National Security Issue: Iran Attacking American Banks
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says he's 99.9 percent sure it was Iran who engaged in cyber security attacks on PNC Bank and other financial institutions.
Speaking on CNBC, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, said the attacks will persist.
"You have this new level of attack coming from what has publicly been reported as Iran. That's now at the shores of the United States. They're not a rational actor when it comes to bring down banks or financial services networks," said Rogers.
Pittsburgh based PNC, Citizens Bank, and other large banks have been targeted in a way that -- so far -- has disrupted customer access to accounts but not compromised personal financial information.
That could change.
"This is as serious as it gets. It's as big a national security issue that I have ever seen, that America is not ready to handle," added Rogers.
That echoes more guarded comments made by local U.S. Attorney David Hickton last month who wouldn't name countries but warned, " I think everyone recognizes that we have been ground zero for some of these problems."
PNC says all its on-line services are working just fine right now, and the bank would not speculate about the origin of the original problem, although last fall CEO Jim Rohr had an opinion.
"We had 38 straight hours of attacks on our systems, and we had the longest attack of all the banks. They just pummeled us, and now they've source it from Iran. What it did in our case was dramatically slowed our processes," noted Rohr.
Former Defense Undersecretary Paul Kaminski warns that more disruptive attacks are ahead.
"The likely occurrence will be a Pearl Harbor attack that will bring a good piece of this nation down," said Kaminski.
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