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Citibank Denies Reported Breach Linked To Russian Gang

Posted by kdawson on from the no-russians-in-here-no-siree dept.

alphadogg writes "US authorities are investigating the theft of an estimated tens of millions of dollars from Citibank by criminals using Russian software tailored for the attack, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required to access that link — CNET's coverage here). The security breach at the major US bank was detected mid-year based on traffic from Internet addresses formerly used by the Russian Business Network gang, the WSJ reported today, citing unnamed government sources. The Russian Business Network is a well-known group linked to malicious software, hacking, child pornography, and spam. The FBI is probing the case, the report said. It was not known whether the money had been recovered and a Citibank representative said the company denied any system breach or losses, according to the report."

8 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Paywalls suck by TSHTF · · Score: 5, Informative

    Article is behind a paywall. Search for it with Google News, and the WSJ will let you read it all.

  2. WSJ article was misleading by plover · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reporter was trying to link a bunch of separate things together.

    1. Black Energy conducted a DDoS against Citibank, but did not steal tens of millions of dollars from them.

    2. Last year, Citi lost tens of millions of dollars from skimmers attached to ATMs.

    3. The hacker Cr4sh is the author of Black Energy, but there is no evidence he was involved in the attack on Citi.

    There is nothing relating these three incidents other than the wishes of an aggressive reporter wanting to build some kind of story against City; *perhaps* he's trying to pump up a case to make it appear they are risking bailout money. But at least when I type this kind of crap I'm labeling it for what it is: PURE SPECULATION.

    --
    John
    1. Re:WSJ article was misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The thing the banks really don't talk about is that losses from in-house embezzlers far exceed losses form outside agents. And of course we won't speak of the enormous losses caused by management greed and stupidity.

    2. Re:WSJ article was misleading by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      2. Last year, Citi lost tens of millions of dollars from skimmers attached to ATMs.

      2. Last year, Citi customers lost tens of millions of dollars from skimmers attached to ATMs.

      (emphasis mine)
      Not individually, but as a group customers always pay the bill for incompetent management / inadequate security.

  3. In other news... by tyroneking · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... the US and UK public are asking for an investigation into the apparent transfer of billions of dollars of public money to major banks. No-one is probing the case and yet the govt and banks are not denying any breach of the political and economic systems.

  4. Citibank != Russian Gang ? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I honestly thought they were one and the same.

    Maybe someone can enumerate for me, the differences between Citibank and a Russian Gang . . .

    Rips off governments for millions . . . check

    Rips off people for millions . . . check

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  5. Cash loss is better than trust lost by assemblerex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cash is replenishable, trust is not as it has to be earned.

  6. Great points, plover! by sgt_doom · · Score: 4, Informative

    And speaking of PURE SPECULATION, which is what Citi does through it's energy/oil speculating subsidiary, Phibro, everyone knows Citi pissed away all their money by their purchase of all those credit default swaps and other categories of credit derivatives; thereby giving those enormous fortunes to the Robert Rubin family (and the others who are now members of the George W. Obama Administration.....)