European Central Bank Website Hacked

The European Central Bank (ECB) had to shut down one of its websites after it was hacked and infected with malicious software. ECB said the compromised site was on its Banks’ Integrated Reporting Dictionary (BIRD) which provides bankers with information on how to produce statistical and supervisory reports. An EBC spokesman also added that the sever hosting the site contained email addresses, names and titles of the subscribers of the BIRD newsletter which might have been stolen.

Data analysis shows evidence that the attack dated back to December 2018, meaning it had gone undetected for months before being uncovered during maintenance work. The ECB said BIRD was hosted by a third-party provider and completely separate from any other ECB systems. "Neither ECB internal systems nor market-sensitive data were affected," the ECB said.

"The ECB is contacting people whose data may have been affected,” the ECB said.