HSBC on Thursday confirmed that it had suffered a cyber attack that took down several of the bank's websites around the world. The company was hit by a denial of service attack, which limited access to its websites and online banking services. HSBC did not provide any information about who might be responsible, but a group with links to Anonymous took credit for the attack on Pastebin and Twitter.

Yesterday afternoon, the @FawkesSecurity Twitter said it took down hsbc.co.uk, tweeting at the bank: "We just brought down your site." The group later attacked hsbc.ca and hsbc.fr.
When another Anonymous Twitter feed asked FawkesSecurity if they were using a botnet to take down the bank's websites, the group responded, "Yup, A very large one as well." The group also suggested that other banks, like Barclays, might be next on the attack list.

The hack, meanwhile, comes amidst what is known as Operation Ababil, or attacks on U.S. banks over the fact that the controversial film Innocence of Muslims is available online here. As Betabeat noted, the campaign recently entered its fourth week by targeting Regions Bank, but has also affected Capital One and SunTrust.