The US Federal Reserve Bank has confirmed that it was a victim in a recent cyber attack by the hacktivist group “Anonymous”. The individual data of far more than 4000 bank executives was stolen. The confidential information was stolen on Sunday and later the Fed admitted to Reuters news agency that it was “aware that data was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a site vendor product.”

According to reports, the security breach was dealt with immediately and further damage was avoided. Fortunately, the attack failed to have any negative effect on vital operations. There was also no indication of stolen assets. All individuals impacted by the breach have been contacted shortly right after and created aware of the problem. The Federal Reserve also offered assurance to all stakeholders that in the future security would be beefed up even more to keep away from such attacks.

However, according to some reports, the stolen info has currently been published on the internet and could be utilised for illegal activities. The hacking group “Anonymous” claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s hack of the Fed by way of its Twitter account. The tweet was as follows, “Now we have your focus America: Anonymous’ Super bowl Commercial 4k banker d0x by means of the FED.”

The Federal Reserve Bank declined to recognize which website had been hacked. But according to sources the site, which was not public, was a speak to database for banks to use throughout a natural disaster. According to some reports it is believed that the data posted pertains to emergency response databases of the government and could contain get in touch with information and cell phone numbers for U.S. bank Presidents, Vice Presidents, Chief Operating Officers and Branch Managers.

This is not the very first attack and definitely won’t be the final. Hackers use sophisticated methods to penetrate security barriers. Final month the United States Sentencing Commission’s internet site was also attacked by “Anonymous”. Unless much more safety measures are taken, cyber attacks remain a continual threat to the government.

[Image via steptoecyberblog]