Roger Thornton, CTO of AlienVault, called them "the digital equivalent of having a group of protesters block the entrance to a building or tie up the phone lines."

"These attacks can be a nuisance and can cause real damage or even physical harm at times -- if the 911 response system was tied up when you needed an ambulance, for example," he said. "But just like the protesters blocking a branch of the bank, , somewhat inevitable regardless of your security posture and is not an attack that results in data stolen or systems permanently damaged."

And Thornton said there is already "a pretty good system for sharing threat data between the Department of Homeland Security and the financial services community today through a program run by FS-ISAC (Financial Services Information Sharing Analysis Center). There are already communication lines in place and these programs are part of the reason our banks are still operating in spite of such hostile threats."

Gary McGraw, CTO of Cigital, said he is a bit puzzled at all the interest in the recent wave of attacks. "These sorts of attacks happen all the time," he said. "I'm not sure why there seems to be more interested in these."