Slashdot Mirror
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.
These days financial institutions consider IT (and other) security as something that costs them money, without giving them any benefit.
Will this wake them up?
I hear the question "Can we afford"? when talking about security in IT shops. The question that I am coming back with is "Can we afford not to"?
Just how many more banks machines are compromised? How about Federal and Local Government's machines and networks.
If you had enough financial data somebody could cause an economic collapse - I wonder what it would look like.
I'd really like to read about this from a source other than Fox news.
First thing I would do is launch my attack from a compromised host in country X while being in country Y
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Does anyone have a link to a story on this from a reputable news source?
Face it, no matter how secure a system is, if it is usable by humans it can be breached. Easily.
There is anywhere from a 100 to 1000 hackers/crackers/slimeballs out there that are ready and willing to take on each and every system. Ones that claim to be "secure" are just a bigger target. There is no such thing as a completely "secure" system that is usable and accessible by ordinary humans. True security would require controlled physical access, multiple authenticating factors, and so on. None of this is going to happen for an accessible system usable by "ordinary humans".
About all that is realistic is to minimize the damages. Face the fact that if you are a target you are going to lose. Try not to lose too much.
Prosecution of the break-in? Forget it. It's the Internet. It is International. If it looks like it is coming from China, it could be real or it could be a proxy. There are no effective International laws that will assist in any sort of prosecution. There is no supra-national police force that will break down the door of the cracker and haul them away. Nothing is going to happen. Unless the guy is a complete idiot that brags about it.
Actually, I never assumed for a moment that the parent was a left wing nut. I assumed he was a right wing nut. There is a certain section of conservative opinion that believes any international multilateral body (I'm looking at you, U.N) is the spawn of satan.
Please, please, please mod parent comment down. The last thing we need is for the phrase "It is Satan's rectum, poised over ..." to become a new Slashdot meme.
I mean can you imagine:
- an item about Linux and posts like "It is Satan's rectum, poised over capitalism";
- an item about fascism and posts like "It is Satan's rectum, poised over our freedoms";
- an item about the Cheney/Bush government and posts like "It is Satan's rectum, poised over privacy and the U.S. Constitution"
- an item about a new Windows version and posts like "It is Satan's rectum, poised over the computer world";
Yech! Please stop it before it starts!
The World Bank and the IMF are infamous for requiring Countries to De-Nationalize resources, requiring that foreign Nationals can buy up once publicly owned companies, and turning social Democracies into lasse-faire capitalist countries in return for their "aid". See: Poland, Indonesia, Chili, Argentina, South America, etc. This usually causes real wages to fall, unemployment to increase, and the reduction of land ownership by locals.
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
OR, maybe the world bank just bought some "cisco" security devices. You know, the ones made in china?
The world bank makes HUGE loans to entire nations and imposes draconian reform rules and regulations, requires real assets as collateral, usually the target nation's most valuable raw resources, and charges interest. If that ain't a bank of sorts, what is?