A DDoS Attack Just Took Down AmEx.com
For at least the past hour, hackers have been hammering the back end of American Express's website with a DDoS attack, and insiders say it's potentially part of the largest attack ever, which made headlines on Wednesday.
According to an American Express employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, users haven't been able to log into their accounts since 3:55 pm on Thursday afternoon, a fact that's been confirmed by a flurry of tweets, and that his team believes the attacks may be related to yesterday's global attacks. American Express has since confirmed the attack in a phone call.
The attack is affecting American Express's websites in the United States and abroad. "They are hammering the backend systems that handle bill pay, statements, [and] account summary," said the AmEx employee, who added that some of the company's online ad and content platforms were down too. (Update: Tablet and mobile apps also went down.) No user data was compromised, the employee said.
