News

Citigroup denies reports that it fell victim to summer cyber breach

December 28, 2009

The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian hackers may have stolen tens of millions of dollars from Citigroup, despite Citbank's denial of the charges. Citing anonymous government officials, the newspaper reported that hackers were connected to a Russian cyber gang and that two other computer systems, at least one connected to a U.S. government agency, also were attacked. The FBI is investigating the case, the Journal reports.

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

Citibank was the subject of a significant data breach in early 2009 and has regularly been hit by fraudsters attempting to access accountholders' information, a U.S. cybersecurity official told ABC News. Citibank customers' debit and credit card numbers were stolen earlier this year after hackers breached Heartland Payment Systems' accounts. The main suspect in that case was allegedly working with accomplices in Russia and Eastern Europe, sources say. One official told ABC News the alleged compromise at Citibank, reported by the Wall Street Journal, involves a company similar to Heartland.

In November, the Department of Justice captured an international hacking group that was planning a $9 million fraud scheme against Heartland, which is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Also last month, the FBI broke up a large computer phishing scheme linked to Egypt, a case the agency called the biggest crime bust in U.S. history.