Out-Law News 1 min. read
01 Nov 2012, 2:16 pm
At a cyber security event Janet Napolitano said that the US Department of Homeland Security is helping the organisations address "vulnerabilities", according to a report by The Hill.
"Right now, financial institutions are actively under attack. We know that. I'm not giving you any classified information," she said, according to the report. "I will say this has involved some of our nation's largest institutions. We've also had our stock exchanges attacked over the last [few] years, so we know ... there are vulnerabilities. We're working with them on that."
Napolitano responded "yes" when asked whether the cyber attackers had been able to steal money or information but declined to provide further details, according to The Hill. She said that the effects that Hurricane Sandy caused on "critical systems" provided an insight into what could also occur if those systems were breached through cyber attacks.
"One of the possible areas of attack, of course, is attacks on our nation's control systems – the control systems that operate our utilities, our water plants, our pipelines, our financial institutions," Napolitano said, according to the report. "If you think that a critical systems attack that takes down a utility even for a few hours is not serious, just look at what is happening now that Mother Nature has taken out those utilities."
"The urgency and the immediacy of the cyber problem; the cyber attacks that we are undergoing and continuing to undergo can not be overestimated," she added.
Earlier this week the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US said that a flaw in the Citibank systems had enabled thieves to steal more than $1 million. It said the security flaw in the bank's "electronic transaction security protocols" meant that 14 alleged conspirators could collectively withdraw "several times the amount of money" they had deposited into Citibank accounts providing that they made "multiple withdrawals" from the accounts within the space of a minute.