One of the first things people consider when they see something happen like the failure of the NASDAQ to operate is whether or not financial terrorists might be at work. There is serious speculation that it could be the work of hackers or terrorists as noted in excerpts from this USA Today article:
Nasdaq outage resembles hacker attacks
Byron Acohido, USA TODAY 5:17 p.m. EDT August 22, 2013
SEATTLE — Officials for the moment say they cannot pinpoint anything malicious about the extraordinary outage of the Nasdaq stock exchange earlier today.
But the incident had all the earmarks of the three waves of denial-of-service attacks that have bedeviled U.S. financial institutions, including stock brokerages, since last September . . .
An Iranian hacking collective — Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam — has claimed credit for orchestrating sophisticated attacks that have overwhelmed the expensive security systems U.S. banks have put into place to keep their online banking services up and secure.
“My first thought is that it is a denial-of-service attack, but I’m not sure,” says Gartner banking security analyst Avivah Litan. “It’s a very attractive target. It’s very visible, and that’s what these Iranian state attacks are all about, making a political statement by disrupting a visible website.” . . .
It’s more plausible that the Iranian ideological hackers would be behind a disruption of Nasdaq, like the three-hour outage that began shortly after noon, Eastern time, Litan reasons.
To CONTINUE READING at USA Today . . .
Here is a video explanation of a DDoS hacker attack:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/04/26/ddos-denial-of-service-schwab-amex/2113637/
“This is being driven by people hiding behind borders. The International police and the FBI cannot get to them because they are in countries we can’t get into,” says Hammack. “More than anything, they’re trying embarrass a lot of the largest U.S.-based financial companies – and they’re doing a pretty good job of it.”
We don’t have any specific information to support or relieve the possibility of terrorism at work in our markets. But, asking the question is fully legitimate. It is obvious that our nation’s economy and future depends on functioning capital markets. That is clearly why the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army publication, Unrestricted Warfare, defined a “single man-made stock market crash” as one of just a handful of new-concept weapons capable of bringing down a superpower. If you can destroy or even disrupt something like the NASDAQ stock market, you can severely impact our economy.
Unrestricted Warfare
The second point is that it is possible to disrupt or destroy a stock market via multiple methods including external cyber attacks, planting a virus, or even physical attacks. We have also shown that a simple undermining of confidence can have a serious impact. Even a slight outage diminishes confidence. This is MEANS.
The Cyber Threat is another aspect of Global Economic Warfare
Economic War Continues to Expand; Iran Has Been Hacking Our Banks and Financial System
‘Knightmare’ on Wall Street
We have clearly shown that many enemies of the United States have the desire to disrupt or destroy our economy. Al Qaeda was very blatant in their desires. The Syrian Electronic Army has shown such a propensity. This is MOTIVE.
FBI Admits: NYSE Was Targeted
A Single, Man-Made Stock Market Crash is a New-Concept Weapon
Hack Twitter Account, Crash the Market?
Now, the third point should be clear: It is possible. No matter what the “experts” might tell you publicly, the opportunity to impact our markets is very real. This has been proven in Congressional “behind closed doors” testimony.
A Dozen Mini Flash Crashes Daily?
How Foreigners Could Disrupt U.S. Markets
This was also proven by the very fact that the stock exchanges have engaged in Quantum Dawn 2, a simulation to prepare for a seemingly inevitable market attack:
Quantum Dawn Two–Recognizing the Reality of Financial Warfare
The reality is that we may never discover what happened with the NASDAQ today. We still don’t know what caused the “flash crash” of May 6, 2010 when the Dow dropped 900 points in minutes.
Three Years After the Flash Crash – Global Economic Warfare
Testing Their Weapons?
It could be terrorism. At this point, we can’t tell. Even if terrorism were involved, are you certain the government would admit to it? After all, we were once told that the attack at Benghazi was simply a spontaneous uprising triggered by a YouTube video seen by a hundred people. And, while terrorists will sometimes take claim for attacks (often falsely), sometimes they won’t, especially if they are perfecting their capabilities.
Bottom Line: If you asked yourself whether or not today’s NASDAQ problems might be terrorism, you were asking a fair question. We are in a global economic war and this is a serious possibility.
