U.S. banking Web sites beware

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The U.S. government warned of a possible Internet attack on U.S. banking Web sites by a radical Muslim group reportedly associated with al-Qaeda, but the threat was unconfirmed and seemed to pose no immediate danger, said officials. The warning was based on a Jihadist Web site posting. The attack is unlikely

With the government taking steps to brief regulators and with the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issuing a warning, there may be some cause for concern. However, Smith is unsure that al-Qaeda has the resources to launch such a cyber attack.

"Clearly, there are plenty of people out there who know how to break into computer systems. It happens all the time where systems is not particularly well secured," noted Smith, author of the book Internet Cryptography. "However, I'm not sure if al-Qaeda has computer-savvy people who could do something like this.