Compliance

Citigroup Strongly Rebuts Media Report Of Cyber Attack, Says No Loss Incurred

Tom Burroughes Editor London 23 December 2009

Citigroup Strongly Rebuts Media Report Of Cyber Attack, Says No Loss Incurred

Citigroup strongly denied media reports that its banking systems had been breached by a computer hacker attack and that a US investigation had been launched. It also said no money had been lost as a result of any such hacker attack. 

"Allegations of a breach of Citi systems and associated losses are false. Denial of service attacks are directed against companies around the world. While there have been attempts to interfere with the availability of our systems, none of these have resulted in any breaches, compromise of customer information, or losses to Citi," said Joe Petro, managing director of the bank’s Security and Investigative Services, in an emailed statement to this publication.

"We had no breach of the system and there were no losses - no customer losses, no bank losses," he said. "Any allegation that the FBI is working a case at Citigroup involving tens of millions of losses is just not true," he said.

The comments came after the Wall Street Journal said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a hacking that targeted Citigroup and resulted in the theft of tens of million of dollars, and said the attack was believed to be linked to a Russian cyber gang. The WSJ report was mentioned in WealthBriefing's sister North American publication, Family Wealth Report, yesterday.

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