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PNC says online systems may be slow after cyberattack warning
[December 12, 2012]

PNC says online systems may be slow after cyberattack warning


Dec 12, 2012 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Some PNC Bank customers may be experiencing "slowness or difficulty accessing online and mobile banking," PNC said on Wednesday.

In a message to customers around 2 p.m. through Facebook and Twitter, PNC said, "We know access to your accounts is important and we continue to address the issue." Earlier on Wednesday, PNC said its systems were operating normally.



"Your information is secure and all other banking systems are working properly," the bank said. "Customers experiencing difficulties are encouraged to try logging on again." The message came a day after a threatened cyberattack caused intermittent problems on its website.

A group that claimed responsibility for a September attack that crippled PNC's website for two days on Monday warned that it planned a second phase of the attacks targeting PNC and four other large U.S. banks.


On Tuesday, PNC said that some customers were experiencing intermittent problems accessing their accounts through its website.

"Some customers may experience slowness or difficulty accessing online and mobile banking," the bank said on Twitter on Tuesday night. "We are working to quickly resolve this issue." The computer hacking group, calling itself al Qassam Cyber Fighters Group posted to Internet message board that it was launching the cyberattacks, known as denial-of-service attacks, in retaliation for an anti-Islam video on YouTube.

Denial-of-service attacks send a flood of traffic to a website in a coordinated way, overwhelm the site's capacity and making it difficult or impossible for legitimate users to gain access.

In the previous attack, PNC said no customer information was compromised.

Alex Nixon is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7928 or [email protected].

___ (c)2012 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) Visit The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) at www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib Distributed by MCT Information Services

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