A post on the Web site Pastebin claiming to be from the hacker collective group Anonymous said activists were starting “OpUSA” today. It threatens to shut down the Web sites of many of the nation’s top banks and federal government agencies including the White House.

James Thurston with the Ohio Bankers League doubted the attack would expose any customer information, but he says frozen bank Web sites would make life harder for customers.

“Your average customer, trying to get online and do some online banking or that kind of thing, will not be able to access the bank’s online platfor,” Thurston says.

The post taking credit for the cyber attack says it follows war crimes committed by the U.S. overseas and against its own people.

The Columbus-based company says the Oct. 3 data breach occurred in a network also used by Allied Insurance. It has determined the compromised information included names, birth dates and Social Security and driver’s license numbers for customers and others who sought insurance quotes.

Nationwide is sending letters notifying those affected and is offering them free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for a year. The insurer says it isn’t aware of the compromised information being misused.

Nationwide is one of the world’s biggest insurance and financial services companies. It says the breach was discovered the day it happened and was contained.

Law enforcement is investigating the breach.