Anonymous Hacks US Federal Reserves

The US Federal Reserve Bank has confirmed that it was a victim in a recent cyber attack by the hacktivist group “Anonymous”. The personal data of more than 4000 bank executives was stolen. The confidential information was stolen on Sunday and later the Fed admitted to Reuters news agency that it was “aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product.”

According to reports, the security breach was dealt with immediately and further damage was avoided. Fortunately, the attack failed to have any negative impact on critical operations. There was also no indication of stolen assets. All individuals affected by the breach were contacted shortly after and made aware of the issue. The Federal Reserve also provided assurance to all stakeholders that in the future security would be beefed up even more to avoid such attacks.

However, according to some reports, the stolen information has already been published online and may be used for illegal activities. The hacking group “Anonymous” claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s hack of the Fed via its Twitter account. The tweet was as follows, “Now we have your attention America: Anonymous’ Super bowl Commercial 4k banker d0x via the FED.”

The Federal Reserve Bank declined to identify which website had been hacked. But according to sources the site, which was not public, was a contact database for banks to use during a natural disaster. According to some reports it is believed that the data posted pertains to emergency response databases of the government and could include contact information and cell phone numbers for U.S. bank Presidents, Vice Presidents, Chief Operating Officers and Branch Managers.

This is not the first attack and certainly won’t be the last. Hackers use sophisticated methods to penetrate security barriers. Last month the United States Sentencing Commission’s website was also attacked by “Anonymous”. Unless more security measures are taken, cyber attacks remain a constant threat to the government.

[Image via steptoecyberblog]