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Screen shot from HSBC Brazil website. The site was hacked by Anonymous hacker group on Thursday.
The hacker group Anonymous on Thursday said it took down the website of a major bank in Brazil, the latest in a series of attacks on the country’s banking system.
Via its Twitter feed, the collective said banking giant HSBC’s Brazil website was down, saying “Target reached! HSBC is drifting (out)! TANGO DOWN!”
As of Thursday afternoon, HSBC’s website was back up.
On Wednesday, the group announced that it attacked three other major bank websites to protest “the numerous inequalities” in Brazil, a spokesperson with the shadowy group told the Valor daily newspaper.
“Message to the big banks: We won’t forget you. Your time will come,” said a post on the group’s Twitter account.
The group attacked the state-run Banco do Brasil website on Wednesday, which was back up by Thursday. The website of Itau, the largest bank in Latin America, was also taken down this week.
Clients of several banks said they were unable to log into the website and access their accounts, reported NTD Television.
“The banks don’t have anything to do with it [corruption]. They should attack other websites because banks are not responsible, neither are their clients,” bank client Bernardo Simoes told the station.
Another customer, Alexandre Ribeiro, said that “the customer always ends up paying the price and that is the biggest problem,” with this kind of umbrella attack.
In recent months, Anonymous has claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. government websites, websites belonging to several Arab nations, credit card companies, and others.
