Hacker arrested after cracking Federal Reserve

A federal grand jury has indicted a Malaysian citizen for allegedly hacking into a computer network at the Federal Reserve Bank and for possessing more than 400,000 credit and debit card numbers.

Federal prosecutors also allege Lin Mun Poo, 32, made a career of compromising systems at financial institutions, major corporations and defense contractors. They say he sold or traded the information he found.

"In the case of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the incident involved a test computer, which is used for testing software and applications," June Gates, public information manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, tells Federal News Radio in an email. "The incident did not involve the Bank's live, production computer system, and no fed data or information was compromised."

Also according to the Justice Department, "in approximately August 2010, he hacked into the computer system of a Department of Defense contractor that provides systems management for military transport and other military operations, potentially compromising highly sensitive military logistics information."

Poo was arrested when he traveled to the U.S. in October. If convicted of the most serious charges, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

This story is part of Federal News Radio's daily Cybersecurity Update brought to you by Tripwire. For more cybersecurity news, click here.