The Occupy Wall Street movement can bask in a few successes.

It has succeeded in bringing the mainstream media into the mix of things with a host of reports. The quite sympathetic front-page New York Times article was a victory in itself, as was the piece by Dealbook columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.

In many ways, this sort of validation was what the protestors were after all along. And now comes word that various unions have decided to join forces with Occupy Wall Street, which will prolong the movement in lower Manhattan. Things got a bit wacky when a threat to wage cyber war on the NYSE--in the name of the movement--was reported. A YouTube video promised that the hacker collective known as Anonymous would "erase" the Big Board from the Internet on Oct. 10.

That might have sent a shiver down the spine of the NYSE. But not too long after, another message, also purportedly from Anonymous, said the threat was a fake, one that was designed to actually discredit the Occupy Wall Street movement. The post said the source of the fake threat was law enforcement authorities.

This is all getting a bit wacky, and it's unclear if any group is planning some sort of an attack. But exchanges and banks should be ready for anything. They ought to be on high alert at a time like this. There have been lots of rumors that the on-going Bank of America website woes are somehow related to its debit card fee hike. There's no evidence of that, but it would not be hard to imagine some groups voicing their support for the protesters with some sort of cyber-malice.

For more:
- here's the article from PC Magazine

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