Anonymous operation OpIcarus continues as it DDoSes Bank of Cyprus

Bank of Cyprus offline as Anonymous carry out another DDoS attack under operation OpIcarus

The online hacktivist group continued with their protest against the corrupt banking practices in the world. On Tuesday, May 3, it had brought down Bank of Greece under OpIcarus, yesterday it brought down the central bank of Cyprus, Bank of Cyprus.

OpIcarus, an online operation aimed at targeting banking and financial institutes worldwide found another target. In a powerful DDoS attack, a group of hacktivists belonging to Anonymous shut down the official website of Central Bank of Cyprus making it unresponsive for several hours.

Operation OpIcarus was launched in January 2016 and restarted in March 2016. The DDoS attack is part of the Anonymous #OpIcarus campaign. The hacktivists behind the group believe that banks and financial giants are involved in corruption and this attempt of theirs is to take on the corrupt global financial architecture.

Like the ancient mythological Greek hero, the #OpIcarus aims at powers that “have flown too close to the sun,” and it has begun exposing their overreaching criminal behavior, the group statement says.

“We must strike at the heart of their empire by once again throwing a wrench into the machine, but this time we face a much bigger target – the global financial system. This time our target is the Global Banking Cartel.”

According to various social media reports, the Central Bank of Cyprus went offline for a couple of hours on May 5. While it is unclear for how long the site remained down, the attackers shared a screenshot showing the site was down for 35 minutes before saving the screenshot.

A member of Anonymous, who took part in the operation against Bank of Cyprus told HackRead:

“The banks have been getting away with murder, fraud, conspiracy, war profiteering, money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels, have put millions of people out on the street without food or shelter and have successfully bought all our governments to help keep us silenced. We represent the voice of the voiceless. We are uniting to make a stand. The central banks which were attacked in recent days were attacked to remind people that the biggest threat we face to an open and free society is the banks. The bankers are the problem and OpIcarus is the solution.”

Since the relaunch of OpIcarus, the Central Bank of Cyprus is the second target. The group’s first target was the website of the Bank of Greece, which stayed offline for several hours on May 3 after it was under DDoS attacks.

The current DDoS attacks on the Central Bank of Cyprus are part of the Anonymous grand master plan. A list of expected attacks includes over 160 financial institutions, including the US Federal Reserve Bank, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Bank of England.

As for the most recent attacks on the Central Bank of Cyprus, DragonSec, one of Anonymous’ divisions, has taken responsibility for the DDoS attacks.

While both the Bank of Greece and Central Bank of Cyprus website has been restored and is available online, the attackers are planning to attack these sites once again in the coming days.