Anonymous Predicts NYSE Glitch In Ominous Tweet, Connection Or Coincidence?
Media speculation is swirling around one ominous Tweet from the group Anonymous that seemed to predict the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) glitch that shut down trading earlier today. The tweet is a tenuous connection at best, but Anonymous has taken aim at the NYSE before.
At 8:45 p.m. July 7th, Anonymous sent out this tweet:
Wonder if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street…. we can only hope.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 8, 2015
Roughly 12 hours later, the NYSE sent out its own series of tweets.
(1 of 2) We’re experiencing a technical issue that we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible. — NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
(2 of 2) We’re doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution & will be providing further updates as soon as we can. — NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
(2 of 3) We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue. — NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
Is there a connection? Some major media outlets seem to think so.
The Mirror ran the headline “Has Anonymous hacked the New York Stock Exchange.”
Others only say the group just successfully predicted the NYSE “bad day.” It could have been a lucky guess based on completely different factors, such as the Chinese stock market troubles or the Greek crisis. Anonymous eventually posted on their Twitter page for people to stay calm.
Likewise, the Department of Homeland Security and the Securities Exchange Commission both claimed the situation was merely a glitch, not a cyberattack, according to AJC.
Still, there is reason to suspect the hacktivist organization.
Anonymous ran an distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the NYSE in 2011. For that situation, the group sent out a far more ambitious message.
“We choose to declare our war against the New York Stock Exchange. On October 10th, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet. On October 10th, expect a day that will never, ever, be forgotten.”
The attack resulted in what CNN Money called a “blip,” in which the NYSE website was unresponsive from 3:35 p.m. to 3:37 p.m. Some detractors claimed the attack was actually perpetrated by the government to draw out Anonymous members, others just say it was a stunt perpetrated by some juvenile hackers.
In any case, Anonymous’ hopes were answered, and the NYSE did have a bad day today – as loosely predicted.
#YAN Successfully predicts @NYSE fail yesterday. Hmmmm. pic.twitter.com/GDHqdepVau
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 8, 2015
Other than that, there’s no evidence of an Anonymous attack prompting the NYSE shutdown.
[Image Credit: Getty Images]
