World Bank hacked??

I am generally not a gloom and doom person. Selling with FUD is effective, but it has never been my style. I say that because I'm about to write a post that makes this global economic meltdown look even that much worse. So here it is.

World Bank Group, which has been trying to position itself "as an institution that can help chart a new path toward global financial stability", has been suffering through mutiple information / network security breaches over the last year. An excerpt from the article:

In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an "unprecedented crisis." In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public.

Man, that gives me all kinds of warm fuzzies.

The article states that at least 18 servers (and maybe as many as 40) had been penetrated, including Human Resources and the banks "security and password server". Not sure what that server is since that description is very nebulous, but it sure does sound important! :) They also say that the bank has been deeply penetrated with spyware.

There also appear to be multiple conflicting stories coming from World Bank on what has been breached, if any information was stolen, etc. MANDIANT has supposedly done some investigation on the breaches that occurred in the June-July timeframe, but the article states that "very few people have ever seen the report, and nobody has been permitted to retain a paper copy." The CIO has reportedly called in Price Waterhouse Coopers to do some snooping, and even the FBI has been called in to investigate.

The article is full of details, including an update from World Bank that says FOX News is basically making the story out of whole cloth. I guess time will tell. Dark Reading is also reporting on it, though it looks like most of their detail comes from the FOX News report.

Oh, and get this. The name of the Treasurer of World Bank is Kenneth Lay. Prophecy?? You decide... <cue doomsday music>