NEW YORK – Hackers launched a wave of sophisticated attacks on Wall Street firms in recent days, targeting information systems at major money managers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Point72 Asset Management informed investors on Aug 5 that it had been attacked, though the hedge fund’s initial indications were that no client information was stolen, according to one of the people, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information.
The firm told investors it was still reviewing the incident, the person said.
Attackers also attempted to infiltrate the information systems at other major hedge funds including Two Sigma Investments and Citadel as well as several private equity firms as part of the assault, the people said.
The attack featured voice phishing, or vishing, in which cyber criminals use technology to mimic voices in phone calls or messages to trick employees into revealing sensitive information or granting access, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information.
Two Sigma, which oversees US$75 billion (S$96 billion) of assets, said it thwarted the attempt to access sensitive data.
“Our security team responded quickly to an attempted vishing campaign targeting Two Sigma and other investment managers, and we have no indication of any impact to our data or our systems,” a spokesperson Two Sigma said in a statement.
“We continue to monitor the situation closely.”
Spokespeople for Point72 and Citadel declined to comment.
Cybersecurity breaches on Wall Street have surged over the past year, as artificial intelligence tools help bad actors launch attacks relatively cheaply and broadly, said Vinod Paul, president of Align Managed Services, which specialises in helping hedge funds with cybersecurity and information technology.
“Before they could attack 50 entities in a targeted attack, now they can do 1,000,” Paul said. “Hackers can also listen into a phone call and mimic the voice, tone and phrasings of the speakers to create fake calls.
In June, a cybersecurity unit at Google published a blog post noting a wave of attacks this year against law firms and other professional services companies. Those attacks also involved vishing techniques and even in some cases featured individuals entering corporate offices posing at IT workers, the post said.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees broker dealers and securities professionals, has been in touch with member firms about recent attempted breaches, according to a separate person with knowledge of the matter.
Finra started the Financial Intelligence Fusion Centre in March – a secure portal for Finra and its member firms to share intelligence about fraud threats and to help coordinate responses. That was in response to the increasingly sophisticated cyber and fraud threats that were being directed at financial services firms.
A spokesperson for Finra declined to comment.
The incidents highlight the growing risk that scammers or rogue states will harness cutting-edge technologies to scale up attacks, sometimes demanding ransoms to unlock data or systems. In Wall Street’s case, that can impact firms and markets handling trillions of dollars in daily transactions. Though they may be unrelated, the recent spree unfolded as US authorities were also racing to contain cyberattacks on water systems in several states that have raised concerns about potential connections to Iran.
For decades, the financial industry had gotten away with lax software practices because the skill and knowledge to execute attacks was specialised and rare, according to Will Wilson, the chief executive officer of Antithesis, which helps companies find and fix IT vulnerabilities and is backed by Jane Street.
“The terrifying thing about modern day AI systems is that they have commoditized this and made it possible to execute attacks at scale,” he said.
“Everybody will have to seriously level up. Otherwise they are going to be in big trouble.” BLOOMBERG
