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World Bank Under Cyber Siege in Unprecedented Attack

Submitted by national on Saturday, 11 October 20083 Comments

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It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution’s highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank’s network for nearly a month in June and July.

In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.

In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank’s senior technology manager referred to the situation as an “unprecedented crisis.” In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public.

[...]

While it remains unclear how much data has been pilfered from the bank, it’s a lot. According to internal memos, “a minimum of 18 servers have been compromised,” including some of the bank’s most sensitive systems — ranging from the bank’s security and password server to a Human Resources server “that contains scanned images of staff documents.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,435681,00.html

3 Comments »

  • Rob Douglas - Editor, InsideIDTheft.info said:

    This is an important story that is worthy of watching as it develops.

    - 11 October 2008 at 3:22 pm
  • Brian said:

    Here is an article from fox news December 2006, Link to full story below.

    FOXNEWS.COM

    Security Warning Issued by DHS for Possible Terrorist Cyber Attack on U.S. Financial Institutions
    Friday, December 01, 2006

    WASHINGTON — The government warned on Thursday of a possible Internet attack on U.S. stock market and banking Web sites from a radical Muslim group, but officials said the threat was unconfirmed and seemed to pose no immediate danger.

    The notice was issued to the U.S. cybersecurity industry after officials saw a posting on a “Jihadist Web site” calling for an attack on U.S. Internet-based stock market and banking sites in December, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke.

    There is no information corroborating the threat, Knocke said, adding that the alert was issued “as a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution. There is no immediate threat to our homeland at this time.”

    • Get more coverage at the Homeland Security Center.

    Another government official said the threat had appeared on a Web site that called for Muslims to destroy American economic sites. The attacks were to be retaliation for the holding of Muslims at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which houses prisoners accused of ties to terrorist groups.

    RelatedVideo
    Cyber Threat? The attacks were to be conducted in December, “until the infidel new year,” the site said, according to a U.S. government translation. It called for attackers to use viruses that can penetrate Internet sites and destroy data stored there.

    The alert was issued by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The team, a partnership between private industry and a number of government agencies, is based at the Homeland Security Department and warns Web sites about virus outbreaks and other Internet attacks.

    Spokespeople for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq declined to comment on the cyber-terror threat.

    Stock exchanges and financial institutions strengthened physical security after…….Continued.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,233477,00.html?sPage=fnc/politics/lawenforcement

    - 11 October 2008 at 4:21 pm
  • Chris said:

    Man I would tell that bank to hire someone who knows what they are doing. I wonder if it might be an inside job. You would think that the world bank would have top of the line IT people to secure things like this. I am putting my money that someone from the inside had something to do with it.

    - 25 October 2008 at 11:25 am

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