These look a lot like “feeler” operations, meant to gauge the reaction attackers can expect from victim institutions and nations. The United States (read: Congress) must act immediately to ensure that we’re ready when attackers stop slowing down or blocking bank websites and start trying to steal customer data en masse.

The Next Web's Emil Protalinski, quoting HP's head of enterprise services Mikle Nefkens:

“This means the attacks average out at about 1,833 per minute or 30 every second.” Those figures are simply astonishing. Extrapolating the other way, it means the US Navy is attacked some 96.36 billion times every year.

If you ever doubted the importance of cyber-preparedness, this should go a long way toward assuaging those doubts.