Officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation tried to hide the fact the agency was breached by hackers linked to the Chinese government, according to a congressional report.
Hackers accessed 12 workstations and 10 servers at the agency using a virus, investigators said, in 2010, 2011 and 2013. High-level officials affected by the breach included the agency’s chairman, a former chief of staff, and a former general counsel.
The findings, which came from whistleblowers and the FDIC Office of Inspector General, were described in a preliminary report issued Wednesday by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
The OIG said the agency failed to report the breaches in a timely manner, and that top attorneys instructed staff not to talk about the issue over email. “The committee’s interim report sheds light on the FDIC’s lax cybersecurity efforts,” committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said in a statement. “The FDIC’s intent to evade congressional oversight is a serious offense.”
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The agency is responsible for overseeing 4,500 banks that fall outside the purview of the Federal Reserve, and has access to sensitive consumer information. The Chinese government has hacked troves of personal information from U.S. companies in recent memory, with breaches last year of insurance companies Anthem and Premera Blue Cross affecting 11 million and 80 million consumers, respectively. The country has not sought to monetize the information, but is thought to be cultivating a database on Americans.
FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg is scheduled to testify about the agency’s breach and its alleged wrongdoing for Smith’s committee on Thursday. Gruenberg has headed the FDIC since 2011.
