Both the Federal Reserve and the Department of Energy have become victims of the latest hacktivist attacks.

Hundreds of federal agency workers have recently had their personal and account information stolen by hackers. U.S. banking and energy agencies have confirmed an incident taking place on February 3 in which an Anonymous-affiliated group broke into a server at the Federal Reserve, stealing personal information of 4,000 senior banking officials.

The hackers exploited a temporary vulnerability in a Website vendor product which was fixed shortly after its discovery. According to a Federal Reserve spokesperson, the vulnerability “is no longer an issue.”

This particular type of breach is known as “doxing” and is a popular method of modern hacktivists used to embarrass targets.

The Department of Energy has also confirmed a similar attack to their system which resulted in the hackers stealing the personally identifiable information of hundreds of employees and contractors. Though the damage from these particular attacks is minor, the FBI is currently investigating the incident.

Security professionals are urging the agencies to release what information they have about the attacks. Without details, the vulnerability that resulted in these breaches may be leaving other companies using the same software open to attack.

Exactly 4,608 individuals have been identified by identity-protection service, PwnedList, as being affected by this breach. Co-founder of PwnedList, Steve Thomas, warns companies and banking institutes to be vigilant. “From our analysis, any bank, large or small, should be concerned about the information that was leaked in this data breach.”

Original article by Robert Lemos.
Read the full story here.