Speculation is flying online that the hacker group Anonymous may have been responsible for the shutdown of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
U.S. government officials and the NYSE Group, which runs the stock exchange, say the technical glitch that shut down the NYSE at 11:32 a.m. ET on Wednesday was not the result of a hack attack.
But a Tweet late the day before from the hacker collective, wondering “if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street,” has got many speculating this could have been one of Anonymous’ most high-profile cyberattacks yet.
Wonder if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street…. we can only hope.— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 8, 2015
The group was coy about the issue Wednesday, tweeting a vague reference to the NYSE trading halt that implied they had a hand in it. And as the day wore on with trading halted, Anonymous called for a spontaneous protest at the stock exchange building on Wall Street.
#YAN Successfully predicts @NYSE fail yesterday. Hmmmm. pic.twitter.com/GDHqdepVau— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 8, 2015
#Anonymous is calling for a protest today at the New York Stock Exchange. Flood Wall Street at: 5PM EDT! | #NYSE— Anonymous (@AnonyInfo) July 8, 2015
But officials in New York and the NYSE Group say the glitch wasn’t the result of a cyber-attack, nor was it related to another technical glitch that grounded United Airlines jets briefly on Wednesday morning.
Counterterrorism and Homeland Security officials reportedly briefed President Barack Obama on Wednesday, telling him that there was no indication that malicious actors were involved.
But with the NYSE trading halt, the United Airlines glitch and the Chinese stock market plummeting 6 per cent in one day, one could be forgiven for seeing conspiracies and calamities around the corner.
In an article listing all that had gone wrong Wednesday, Gawker argued that the time had come to panic.
But panic never really arrived. Trading of NYSE-listed shares has continued on other exchanges, such as the NASDAQ, and while NYSE stocks were down for the day, that had more to do with the nasty rout in Chinese stocks than with panic over the trading halt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading down 1.44 per cent, at 17,521.50, just before market close Wednesday. — This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Source: Huffingtonpost
