Fed Hacked; Anonymous Blamed

Group posts 4K bankers' credentials: report
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 6, 2013 10:10 AM CST
Fed Hacked; Anonymous Blamed
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks during a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The Federal Reserve says it was hacked this weekend, and while the culprit hasn't been named, Anonymous is looking likely. The hacker group posted the credentials and contact information of some 4,000 banking executives, ZDNet reported Sunday night. That sounds a lot like the hacked material, the Daily Intelligencer notes: The Fed told bankers that hackers had targeted a contact database for use in the event of a natural disaster, Reuters reports.

"Exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue. This incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system," said a spokeswoman, noting that the data "was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product." According to the Fed, "despite claims to the contrary, passwords were not compromised." Regardless, the intrusion prompts fresh concerns about the government's cybersecurity, both Reuters and the Daily Intelligencer note. (More Federal Reserve stories.)

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