Cyber Incident Victim: Bank of Greece
Date:
May 2016
Location:
Greece
Summary
The Bank of Greece website was rendered inaccessible for over six hours following a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack by the hacktivist group Anonymous as part of Operation OpIcarus. The group claimed the attack protested alleged financial corruption and threatened to target additional banking institutions daily unless they addressed accountability concerns, releasing a list of potential targets across multiple countries including the U.S., U.K., and Brazil.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On May 3, 2016, the Bank of Greece website became inaccessible following a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack claimed by the hacktivist collective Anonymous. The attack was conducted under Operation OpIcarus, a campaign initially launched in January 2016 and reactivated in March 2016 targeting global financial institutions. Anonymous justified the attack by alleging systemic corruption within banking sectors, specifically accusing the Bank of Greece and other institutions of "crimes against humanity." The sustained DDoS bombardment overwhelmed the bank's servers, forcing its website offline for over six hours. During the outage, Anonymous communicated directly with media outlet HackRead, warning that additional banks would be targeted daily unless financial institutions "held themselves accountable." The group simultaneously released a YouTube video outlining Operation OpIcarus' motivations and listing prospective targets across multiple countries including Brazil, Bangladesh, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and Iran.
The attack caused significant disruption to the Bank of Greece's online presence, with the website remaining nonfunctional at the time of HackRead's initial reporting. No data breach or financial theft occurred, as the operation focused exclusively on service disruption through DDoS tactics. Anonymous framed the incident as part of a broader escalation against financial infrastructure, citing prior attacks on HSBC and Turkish banks as evidence of growing hacktivist activity against the sector. The HSBC incident had disrupted online services during a critical salary disbursement period, while Turkish bank attacks impaired nationwide credit card processing capabilities. The Bank of Greece attack marked Operation OpIcarus' first publicly confirmed disruption since its March 2016 relaunch, demonstrating the collective's renewed focus on financial targets. No technical details regarding attack mitigation or the bank's incident response were disclosed in available reporting.