Hackers attack finance and cloak-and-dagger worlds

Last week, the Manila Bulletin's online edition carried a couple of stories here and here telling about hacking attacks affecting Citigroup and America's spy agency CIA.

In the Citigroup incident, hackers stole personal information of more than 360,000 American credit card customers, almost double the initial estimates.


Hacker group LuIz Security claims to have broken into the public Web site of America's spy agency. 

 According to Citigroup officials, the bank discovered the cyber-attack on May 10. Apparently, hackers used the company's Account Online system to access credit cards issued by North America Citigroup in the United States.

But if anyone was thinking that only financial institutions' networks were susceptible or vulnerable to hacker attacks, the second hacking incident had proved them wrong.

According to media reports, the CIA was investigating claims by a hacker group, which identifies itself as the Lulz Security, of disabling the agency's public site, www.cia.gov. The group is showing off its notoriety with a hotline number, and encouraging the public to call and suggest sites to be hacked.

Earlier, the group had claimed responsibility for downing Web sites including those of Japanese companies Sony and Nintendo, the U.S. Senate, and the Public Broadcasting System news organization.

These high-profile attacks illustrate what some IT security experts have been saying for quite some time now: hackers are fast transitioning from being nerdy geeky guys in the basement with too much time on their hands into money-driven, sophisticated, professional criminals.

It's an interesting and brave new world out there, indeed.