BB&T Sees Website Bog Down Amid Denial of Service Attack

The latest wave of cyberattacks on the nation's biggest banks continues.

BB&T (BBT), based in Winston-Salem, N.C., said Thursday that some customers who visited the bank's website were unable to log on or experienced waits.

The slowdown is at least the second this fall at BB&T, which weathered an electronic assault on its website in October.

"We've seen some intermittent delays and denial of service," BB&T spokeswoman Maria Lachapelle told American Banker. "Our teams are working closely to address the situation and there's been minimal impact to clients."

BB&T is the latest in a series of banks that have seen their websites swamped. Wells Fargo said Tuesday that customers had trouble retrieving their accounts online amid a threatened attack. Both U.S. Bank and PNC Financial have seen their websites besieged recently as well.

"Qassam Cyber Fighters Group today in its second attack has made BB&T Bank website out of reach and has disrupted this bank's customer service," read a message posted Thursday on Hilf-Ol-Fozul, a website that has tracked activity by the group.

The group, which has claimed responsibility since September for cyberattacks on at least 10 banks worldwide, threatened on Dec. 10 to sustain so-called denial of service attacks against JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), U.S. Bank (USB), PNC (PNC) and SunTrust (STI).

Lachapelle said BB&T is encouraging customers who have difficulty banking online to call the company's customer service line or to visit one of BB&T's branches.

"We've got more than one way to take care of them," she added.

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