The Fed declined to comment.
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The documents reveal that the Federal Reserve’s cyber-security team has created 310 reports, of which the team labeled 140 as hacking attempts.
The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington September 16 2015. “The request comes on the heels of a Reuters report that the Fed had been successfully hacked at least 50 times between 2011 and 2015”.
Global policymakers, regulators and financial institutions have become increasingly concerned about the security of the worldwide banking system after a string of cyber attacks against banks in Bangladesh, Vietnam and elsewhere linked to fraudulent transaction messages sent across the global financial platform SWIFT. “However, our security programme and processes for detecting and countering attacks are robust and our critical operations have never been affected”. An additional dozen were stamped “informational”, while one stood out as being labelled “extortion”.
Somebody or something is trying to gain access to important documents at the Federal Reserve. Many officials at the central bank believe those responsible are spies or hackers.
Moreover, the lawmakers stated the Committee wants to conduct a briefing on all of the incidents, the Federal Reserve’s cybersecurity posture as well as all documents and information related to the breaches. Spear phishing attempts, Fed emails sent to the wrong recipients and hacking attacks are some cases. The Board of Governors’ 12 branches are privately-owned, and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Hackers broke into Bangladesh’s central bank in February, accessing the bank’s accounts at the New York Federal Reserve and shifting $101 million to the Philippines.
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There are heightened concerns about hackers potentially slipping into central banks.
