Hackers Repeatedly Attacked the World Bank for Sensitive Data

According to news report from FoxNews, the World Bank Group has been hit by a succession of attacks on its network during the recent few months, with sensitive data likely to be exposed from the systems of the anti-poverty bureau.

Moreover, FoxNews referred to internal memos while stating in its report that the World Bank suffered at least two hacking attacks from IP addresses originated in China. Also, since the 2007 summer, the bank's network has encountered a massive malware infection, and spyware was in some way installed onto its servers.

The report further said that the computer network of the organization suffered six critical intrusions that included repeated entries into the network for almost throughout June-July 2008.

Security specialists said that in the World Bank attack, the cyber-criminals employed different kinds of spyware programs, and they invaded an outside server that the bank's unit for private sector growth operated. Subsequently, they managed to acquire passwords, one even for the administrator of the computer systems.

Furthermore, the security specialists revealed that at least 18 servers of the World Bank might have suffered compromises, and a minimum of 5 contain sensitive data.

Additionally, the report suggested that all the affected servers should be totally erased and then restored in a way that any malicious code on them is eliminated. It also recommended for updating security protocols to block future attacks.

According to the reports, the FBI has been investigating into the security breaches, and Fox's sources describe the hacks as grave, as against to defacement of Websites.

The World Bank, however, strongly claimed that the report's details were totally untrue.

The Bank said that the FoxNews story is incorrect and full of errors and falsehoods. It gave misinformation collected from non-virtuous sources and exposed e-mails not compatible with the context, as reported by ITNews on October 13, 2008.

However, the World Bank admits the hacking attempts although maintains that the attacks couldn't affect much. It claims that similar to other private and public institutions, the World Bank has been repeatedly encountering hacking attacks but it is steadfastly enhancing its security to curb the menace.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 10/21/2008