Federal Reserve Confirms Security Breach, Calls Anonymous Hack Claim 'Overstated'

A Federal Reserve spokesperson confirmed a temporary security breach of its computers to The Huffington Post on Tuesday morning.

"Information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product," the spokesperson told HuffPost in a phone interview, adding that the problem was "fixed after discovery and is no longer an issue."

According to the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified by name, the breach "did not affect critical operations."

The confirmation comes in the wake of a claim by hacker group Anonymous on Sunday that it had stolen sensitive information on 4,000 American bank executives from Federal Reserve computers.

Although the security breach has now been confirmed, the spokesperson called Anonymous' claim "overstated," and would not comment on the nature of the data obtained other than to confirm that contact information was taken.

Earlier this week, ZDNet reported that "login information ... credentials, IP addresses, and contact information of American bank executives" were listed in a spreadsheet posted to a government site that Anonymous had hacked.

Even if the breach might not have been as serious as publicized by Anonymous, it is the first actual leak of information achieved by the group's Operation Last Resort. Launched in January, OpLastResort is the Anonymous response to the suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz. The group demands "reform of computer crime laws" and investigation of "overzealous prosecutors."

Federal Reserve computers have been hacked before. In 2010, a Malaysian man was arrested in a credit card scheme after managing to hack into and damage 10 computers associated with a Federal Reserve training system, Bloomberg News reported at the time. However, no data or information was accessed or compromised in that attack, a spokeswoman told Bloomberg.

more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/federal-reserve-security-breach_n_2622698.html