The U.S. Federal Reserve was breached more than 50 times between 2011 and 2015, according to agency records revealed on Wednesday.
The information, obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed that the bank’s systems had been breached by hackers 54 times. It was also hit with malicious code on 81 occasions and experienced 32 cases of “information disclosure,” or improper sharing of information through avenues like email.
The records included the bank’s Washington-based Board of Governors, but did not include records from 12 private regional branches, which makes it likely the total number of attacks against the bank were vastly underestimated.
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The bank didn’t disclose where the attacks came from, though recent history provides some clues. Aside from organized crime groups, some of the most likely culprits include the governments of China and Russia. Both are routinely accused of targeting U.S. institutions in order to obtain proprietary information and gain market leverage.
Another possibility is Iran: The Justice Department in March indicted seven Iranian nationals on charges that they hacked dozens of American banks.
The report stated that four of the incidents were classified as “espionage,” though that could refer to hacking by either a government or a commercial company seeking to acquire information. All of those incidents took place in 2012, and two resulted in the loss of sensitive information.
The report was released the same day that a congressional panel announced an investigation into the New York Fed’s cybersecurity practices. A hack of the bank’s SWIFT system, which is used for electronically transferring funds, allowed thieves to make off with $101 million in February.
