It’s one of the largest banking regulatory agency’s in the U.S. government — and they didn’t want you to know the Chinese government was gaining unauthorized access to their data for years.
The Chinese government is believed to have hacked into computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2010, 2011 and 2013, including the workstation of then-FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, a congressional report says.
And the FDIC tried to cover up the breaches.
The report issued Wednesday by the Republican majority staff of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee cites a May 2013 memo from the FDIC inspector general to agency Chairman Martin Gruenberg. The memo described an “advanced persistent threat,” said to have come from the Chinese government, which compromised 12 computer workstations and 10 servers at the FDIC.
In addition to those incidents, the committee staff has been investigating the FDIC’s response to a number of what it calls major data breaches at the agency and whether it is properly safeguarding consumers’ banking information.
When congressional investigators began reviewing the FDIC’s security policy, the agency tried to hide the hacks, the report says.
“FDIC’s chief information officer, Russ Pittman … ‘instructed employees not to discuss … this foreign government penetration of the FDIC’s network’,” CNN’s
FDIC spokeswoman Barbara Hagenbaugh declined to comment on the report. Gruenberg is scheduled to testify Thursday at a hearing by the committee on cybersecurity at the agency.
The issue of suspected Chinese government hacking has been sensitive since the disclosure last year of a massive breach of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s databases, which the U.S. believed was carried out by Chinese cyber spies. In one of the worst data breaches in U.S. history, the personal files of 21 million Americans were stolen, and the federal personnel agency came under fire for neglecting to put in basic cybersecurity protections to prevent the plunder.
The OPM breach dealt the U.S. a major national security blow, experts say, by exposing the personal information and foreign contacts of millions of people with security clearances.
Created during the Great Depression to insure bank deposits, the FDIC maintains a multibillion-dollar insurance fund. It monitors and examines the financial condition of U.S. banks, keeping confidential information on about 9,000 banks and savings and loans.
The House committee’s chairman, Republican Lamar Smith of Texas, said the staff report shows the FDIC’s “lax cybersecurity effort.” He accused the agency of trying to stonewall the committee in its investigation.
On the suspected Chinese hacking, the report says the “advanced persistent threat” compromised FDIC computers in 2010, 2011 and April 2013. “In essence, a foreign government penetrated FDIC’s computers and the workstations of high-level agency officials,” including Bair, the then-chief of staff and the then-general counsel, it says.
The agency watchdog inspector general criticized the FDIC in the 2013 memo for violating its own policies, according to the report.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Congress sends much of America’s industrial jobs to a communist nation with aggressive ambitions. Strange.
i’ve heard from several sources that the precursor warning of imminent societal collapse will be when on a Friday, probably on a 3-day weekend, there will be an announcement that a “computer virus” has attacked all banking systems in America, and that no one will have access to banks for the whole weekend.
Come the following workday, martial law will be in place, and they’ll be trying to enforce it against an angry, armed citizenry – ably assisted, one hopes, by loyal US troops who KNOW that there’s NO PROVISION for “martial law” in the Constitution, therefore ANY such declaration would be primae facie evidence of Oath-breaking felony perjury – and therefore, would refuse to obey any orders in re: martial law.
God — that’s too terrifying to even contemplate. But I have to admit, its highly probable.
What if Hillary’s basement server turns out to be the safest place in Washington … ha-ha! After all, as well as the banks, the Chinese hacked the Social Security numbers of all government employees, past and present.
Just say’n
As much money as China is loaning the United States I can understand why they would want to know what is going on. Considering they are one of our rivals the information they gain could be used against us when they decide it is time to create problems for us.
You should read the latest book: Liberty’s Last Stand
It talks about exactly that occurrence and how the
American People and the Armed Forces responded
to such an event.
WE the PEOPLE need the Chinese to come forward and show that they have hacked Hillary’s computer when she was Secretary of State. We and the FED’S know that they have been hacking computers and back then with NO security on her system that it was so easy. The money that they gave to her via the Clinton Foundation is just icying on the cake and can be taken because it gives cause.
F.C. Hilnbrand-
i have heard that since The Liar was CIA-trained, it is highly likely that she deliberately put things on her server knowing in advance it would be hacked, so she could assert “plausible deniability.” This could also account for the Chi-coms stuffing large “donations” into the Klinton Krime Kollidge – uh, Foundation – along with their “Global Initiative” NWO/OWG treason – and/or other, less visible accounts.
If so, it’s quite unlikely that the Chinese will kill their golden-goose agent by releasing damning nfo on her.
OUR ONLY HOPE IS GOD AND DONALD TRUMP.
Having faith in God is definitely a good thing, but may God have mercy upon you in your misplaced faith in the other guy whose track record of bankrupt casinos and failed enterprises has been just amazing … Trump ‘University’; Trump Airlines; Trump Mortgage; Trump ‘The Game’, all of which failed (except the Game which has been reincarnated using one ruse “You’re Fired”!
Not to mention the 35,000 lawsuits against Trump companies …
Entertaining … yes! But only a hero in his own mind ….
Just say’n
And FDIC’s chief information officer, Russ Pittman, is still employed there?
Under Obama, the US has avoided confrontation, and like Britain under Neville Chamberlain (against Hitler) the US has allowed aggressors (China, Russia, ISIS, etc.) to gain strength and become a greater threat than they should have become. Obama has created an extremely difficult situation for whoever (Trump, Clinton, etc.) follows him. The US may now really need to fight or be overwhelmed. Obama’s cowardice has a price. Some will say he avoided conflict, and that is partly true, but he has created a situation where greater conflict is inevitable in the future.
This Chinese attack against American computer networks is as much an act of war as the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. But you can’t show this on video. And one has to have advanced computer programming knowledge to understand what is happening. So it’s not as easily seen, but dangerous.