London Stock Exchange Was 'Under Major Cyberattack' During Linux Switch

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Computerworld UK: "The London Stock Exchange's new open source trading system may have been hacked last year, according to a report. The alleged attack came as the LSE began the switch over to the Linux-based systems, according to the dates referred to in the Times newspaper. The continued threat of cyber attack has resulted in the LSE keeping a close dialogue with British security services, which this year branded cyber attacks as one of the biggest threats to the country. There were major problems on the exchange on 24 August, when stock prices of five large companies collapsed."

Comments

Pissed off crackers?

[Centurix]

Part of thinks that these guys may have had easy access to the stock exchange system through whatever backdoor they had. Closing it then pissed them off so they went on the attack.

Re:Pissed off crackers?

[gbjbaanb]

not necessarily - they might have thought it was the ideal "opportunity moment" - attack the system when they're undergoing a transition and not only might they get away undetected, but they might also cause more damage than before (ie with servers turned off ready to be replaced with the new software, the capacity would be reduced).

It isn't necessarily Microsoft fanboi hackers trying to discredit the migration to Linux (and getting their dates cocked up)

Love the FUD!

[erroneus]

This is just awesome. Just when you would think it would be impossible to spin an attack on a major Microsoft based trading system, they omit Microsoft, insert Linux and speak of the dreaded cyberattack.

I have to wonder who and why. Anyone have any background on the author and the publication's history on Linux and Windows stories?