'Anonymous' Joins Hacker Army Targeting Central Banks for Cash Giles Turner, Chiara Albanese and Daniele Lepido - Bloomberg
go to original March 17, 2017

Anonymous claimed to have taken down nine national banks during a worldwide 2016 cyber attack (Anonymous)

In 2008, a group of thieves stole $700,000 from Russia’s central bank the old-fashioned way: they infiltrated a processing center, handcuffed a guard, and made off with the cash.

These days, the criminal attacks on the Bank of Russia are far less labor-intensive - and far more lucrative. Over the course of last year, hackers looted up to $21 million from accounts opened with the Bank of Russia.

The thefts from the Bank of Russia are part of a surge in cyber attacks on global monetary authorities in 2016, from Bangladesh to Warsaw. This year is likely to be even worse.

“For a central bank the question is not if, but when, they will be victim of a cyber-attack,” said Giulio Coraggio, a lawyer focusing on cyber-security at DLA Piper in Milan.

The hacking collective “Anonymous,” known for its activism against big corporations, security forces, and governments, is specifically targeting central banks, according to two people with direct knowledge of the group’s activities, who asked not to be identified.

While the people wouldn’t say which banks are being targeted, they said the group has been busy recruiting new hackers to aid it in its forays, and renewed its attack against a number of central banks in February.



The group last year attacked at least eight monetary authorities, including the Dutch Central Bank, the Bank of Greece, and the Bank of Mexico, the two people said. In a change of tack, it is also considering plans to sell on any confidential information it obtains, according to one of the people.

The actions by non-state hacking and hacktivist groups such as Anonymous “are a wake-up call that should alert us to the critical weaknesses of global financial systems,” said Stefano Zanero, a professor of computer security at Italian university Politecnico di Milano.

Read the rest at Bloomberg

Related: Russia Is Recruiting the FBI’s Most-Wanted Hackers (Quartz)

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