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Citigroup Denies Rumors of Cyber-Attack, FBI Investigation

by Caleb Johnson on December 22, 2009 at 04:15 PM

It's no secret that cyber attackers are striking at an alarming rate -- from breaching government computers to stealing millions from ATMs. Now, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the cyber theft of tens of millions of dollars from banking and insurance giant Citigroup, Inc.

Anonymous government officials told the Journal that the hackers were connected to a Russian cybercrime ring, and that two other computers, one of them a government machine, were also hacked. According to these reports, the alleged attack could've happened any time within the last year. Officials from Citigroup, though, have a bone to pick.

"We had no breach of the system and there were no losses, no customer losses, no bank losses," said Joe Petro, managing director of Citigroup's Security and Investigative services. "Any allegation that the FBI is working a case at Citigroup involving tens of millions of losses is just not true."

Sounds like an attempt to calm stockholders, if you ask us. But while we're waiting on this game of he said/she said to play out, The New York Times has reported that President Obama will appoint former Microsoft executive Howard A. Schmidt to the position of cybersecurity coordinator this Tuesday. This move comes only a few months after the president's failed cyber security czar experiment.

Which begs the question about the effectiveness of this appointment: if it barks like a dog and looks like a dog, isn't it still a dog no matter what you call it? [From: The Wall Street Journal, via: Daily Finance]

Tags: banks, citigroup, crime, fbi, hack, money, security, top

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