What Happened to Wells Fargo’s Plan to Counter Cyber-Attacks?

We’ve talked quite a bit about the new form of terrorism in the past couple of months. As cyber-terrorists target major U.S. financial institutions, you’d think that a bank as big as Wells Fargo would have been doing everything they could to avoid the ramifications of a DDoS attack. Unfortunately, as the Wells Fargo outage reached its fourth day, it seemed that the bank was completely unprepared – even though plenty of warning had been given.

Cyber-Terrorists Aren’t Discreet

The hackers who perform the cyber-attacks against major U.S. banks aren’t exactly discreet. In fact, not only do they say when they will be striking, they often give us a clue as to who they will be targeting as well. Heck, sometimes they outright tell us which bank will be going down next. With all the warnings that were being given, you’d think that Wells Fargo would have had anti-DDoS measures in place. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case this past Friday as customers couldn’t access their accounts for the fourth day in a row.

What Happened to Anti-DDoS Measures?

That’s the question that was probably on the mind of many customers as they continued to try to access their online accounts and couldn’t – four days into the attack on the Wells Fargo website. We understand a bank going down for a few hours after a DDoS attack, but four days? It seems that Wells Fargo didn’t have their ducks in a row when it came to protecting customers from the frustrations that a DDoS attack can bring.

The Technology IS Out There

Although you couldn’t tell by looking at what happened when Wells Fargo was attacked, there is indeed technology out there to help mitigate the damage done by a DDoS attack. Website monitoring services, like those we provide, are just one piece of the puzzle. Anti-DDoS services also have to be put into place if one hopes to avoid the havoc that a DDoS attack can create.

The “let’s bury our heads in the sand” approach didn’t work for Wells Fargo. It won’t work for your website either. You may never be the victim of a DDoS attack, but you can never be certain that your site won’t get caught in the crossfire of today’s Internet politics. Make sure your site is safeguarded and don’t bury your head in the sand. If your site goes down, Alertra will let you know. You just have to make sure you have anti-DDoS measures in place should the worst-case scenario every play itself out.