US government 'monitored bank transfers'

[DaBees-Knees]

A huge range of security weaknesses, said to be worth more than $2m (£1.6m) if sold on the black market, have been leaked online by a hacking group. The tools are said to have been created by the US National Security Agency. Accompanying documents appear to indicate it was able to monitor money flows among some Middle East and Latin American banks. It apparently did this by gaining access to two service bureaus of the Swift global banking system. Such a hack could have enabled the US to covertly monitor financial transactions, researchers said.

The files were released by Shadow Brokers, a hacking group that has previously leaked malware. If genuine, it represents perhaps the most significant exposure of the US agency's files since the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013. On Twitter, Mr Snowden described it as the "Mother Of All Exploits" - a reference to a bomb recently used by the US military in Afghanistan.

Multiple experts have said this latest "data dump" is credible - though the institutions implicated have dismissed the claims, or refused to comment. Swift, which is headquartered in Belgium, said: "We have no evidence to suggest that there has ever been any unauthorised access to our network or messaging services." Swift was successfully targeted by hackers last year when criminals stole $81m from the Bangladeshi central bank.

The BBC is not able to verify the authenticity of the files - and the NSA has not commented on the leak.

I find it rather strange that hacking groups seem to have a lot less success in hacking Russian or Chinese organisations.

The full article can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39606575

[GhostShip]

From the poor command of english I am sure that the hackers are not from the US, there are too many grammatical inconsistencies.

I suspect that these released exploits and the pathetic attempt to cast the blame on US hackers is all done simply to make folks chase the wrong enemy instead of focusing on the real enemy whom operate from less democratic areas of the globe.