An internal report on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has revealed that the key U.S. banking regulator may have been hacked by the Chinese government in 2010, 2011, and 2013. However, until a congressional report was released Wednesday, the breach largely flew under the radar, as the report alleges FDIC officials tried to cover up the hack.
The report by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology revealed that, during a congressional investigation into the FDIC's cybersecurity policy, the agency seemingly hid the fact that 12 computers and 10 backroom servers — including the personal computers of FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, his chief of staff, and the general counsel — had been hacked into, CNN reports. One of the agency's top lawyers even went so far as to advise employees not to correspond about the hacks via email, lest those emails become government records. The cover-up was done to ensure that Gruenberg would be approved by Congress after being nominated by President Obama in 2011, Reuters writes. Gruenberg was confirmed in late 2012.
The hackers were thought to be after "economic intelligence," Reuters reports. Neither FDIC nor the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. has commented on the alleged breach.
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