Defense Tech: A Cyber Attack on the Poor's Wallet

[unhappycamper]

A Cyber Attack on the Poor's Wallet

Last week's blog posting "Offshore and Cyber Security" rang true as cyber security and financial security were rudely awakened by word of what was being dubbed the largest security breach in history. This incident began over a year ago, but federal authorities and bank officials were able to keep this under wraps until Thursday October 9th. The data breach at the World Bank (WB) was discovered in mid 2007. After receiving a tip from the FBI, the World Bank moved quickly to investigate. This investigation continues today and like the vast majority of cyber events I have been involved with, it is highly dynamic and there is a great deal of contradictory information.

Here is what we know at this point. There were cyber security events at World Bank. I discussed the event with Carl Hanlon of World Bank and he stated that many of the news stories are fraught with errors and called some of the reporting out right irresponsible. Our discussion went on and he said, "Like other public and private institutions, the World Bank has repeatedly experienced cyber attacks." He emphatically stated that "At no point have we uncovered evidence the cyber attackers' accessed sensitive information in the World Bank's Treasury, procurement, anti-corruption or human resources departments."

~snip~

I posed the following question to Satyam: Was anyone associated with Satyam fired, asked to resign or put on leave pending an investigation of the security events that did occur at World Bank? Here is what I got as a reply: "As a matter of policy, Satyam does not comment on individual client contracts."

Like every other security breach it takes a long time to determine what the implications are and what the true impact is for a cyber event like this. In a piece by Fox News, they have a quote stating "They had the keys to every room at the bank. And we can't say whether they still do or don't until we fully and openly address what's happening here."

~snip~

Were any of their employees/contractors involved or not, and if so, to what extent? Oddly enough, a five-year contract with the World Bank and Satyam lapsed in September. Failure to get in front of these allegations with a full disclosure could expose the company to shareholder litigation and possible investigation by other authorities including the Securities and Exchange Commission. Note: After being up by 1.29% at the market close on Friday, after hours saw the stock drop by 6.45% to 11.50.


Rest of article at: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/004466.html?wh=wh