Respected Gartner analyst Avivah Litan has claimed in a blog post that cyber crooks have used comparatively low levelDDoS – distributed denial of service – attacks to confuse anddistract financial institution security staffs as fraudulent wiretransfers were in motion.

In an interview with SC Magazine, Litan offered more specifics, claiming thatshe knows of three incidents in the past few months in whichDDoS was used in heists involving “millions” of dollars.

Litan explicitly indicated that these DDoS attacks were unlikethe high volume DDoS that in the past year have taken down manyU.S. financial institutions including $3.8 billion, PleasantonCalif.-based Patelco Credit Union and University Federal Credit Union, a $1.5 billion institution inAustin, Texas. No thefts have been associated with thesepolitically motivated attacks.