Major US banks came under growing pressure from banking regulators to improve the security of their customer account information after Citigroup Inc became the latest high-profile victim of a large-scale cyber attack. While Citigroup insisted the breach had been limited, experts called it one of the first big, direct attacks on a major US financial institution, and forecast it could drive momentum for a systemic overhaul of the banking industry's data security measures.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is developing new guidance for banks and may ask "some banks to strengthen their authentication when a customer logs onto online accounts," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said on Thursday. Citigroup said late on Wednesday that computer hackers breached the bank's network and accessed the data of about 200,000 bank card holders in North America.
The third-largest US bank is the latest in a growing list of companies that have suffered cyber attacks, including Sony and Google Inc. Security experts said the attack may be a watershed moment for the US banking industry, which until now has suffered fewer direct hacker attacks than retailers.
Citigroup said the names of customers, account numbers and contact information, including email addresses, were viewed in the breach. The Financial Times said the bank discovered the breach in early May. Citigroup said other information such as birth dates, social security numbers, card expiration dates and card security codes (CVV) were not compromised. In the brief email statement, Citi did not say how the breach had occurred. Another Citi spokesman, James Griffiths in Hong Kong, said the breach had affected 1 percent of North American card customers, which the bank's annual report says total 21 million.
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