World Bank Under Cybersiege In "Unprecedented Crisis"

JagsLive sends in a Fox News report on large-scale and possibly ongoing security breaches at the World Bank. "The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned. 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." Update: 10/11 01:15 GMT by T : Massive spyware infestations might be good cause to reevaluate the TCO of non-Windows systems on the desktop.

Comments

Funny the Email is referencing External webmail

[phantomcircuit]

Well of course I can't be certain but this appears to be ntohing more than a breach of their email system (encrypt your damn email people).

From the leaked memo "MD and CIO has directed that all external Webmail accounts be disabled immediately for all staff who have not changed their passwords yet"

Re:Funny the Email is referencing External webmail

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhh you fail at reading, from TFA:
"In plainspeak: "They had access to everything," says the source. "They had the keys to every room at the bank. And we can't say whether they still do or don't until we fully and openly address what's happening here."

0wn3d

[modemboy]

Damn, they got owned completely, 3 different times. Someone in their security department needs to get a clue. Somehow their offsite data store got accessed, then an IT consultant worker key logged them, and finally they got in again through a third party and escalated to admin rights.

3 different attack vectors, all completely successful. That is just kinda pathetic...

Re:Before anyone mods the parent down....

[megamerican]

That's not at all what actually happens. You should read John Perkins' book Confession of an Economic Hitman

You can find interviews of him explaining it all over the internet. It has nothing to do with "lasse-faire" capitalism.

The IMF/World Bank gives a country (normally with a valuable natural resource) a loan it knows it can't pay off to build infrastructure that benefits only a few big corporations, normally foreign. Once the country defaults, the banks get the country to sign over its infrastructure and natural resources to them and other corporations.

That isn't capitalism of any form. It is legalized theft.