Citibank hacked?

The F.B.I. is probing into a recent hacking attempt at Citigroup which they say was inititiated by a Russian cyber gang. The attack took aim at Citigroup's subsidiary banking arm Citibank, which includes the retail bank's North American branch network. The theft is reported to amount in the tens of millions. Citi denies the breach.

This is not the first time this has happened to Citi. In 1995 Russian computer geek Vladimir Levin hacked into Citibank and robbed it of $10 million. Interpol arrested him in the UK that same year after he had transferred money to his accounts in multiple countries.

There was also an incident in 2006 where Citibank put transaction holds on some Citi-branded MasterCard debit cards. In that case, the action was later linked to a breach at office-supply retailer OfficeMax. That intrusion remains unsolved.