Federal Reserve confirms hackers breached site

The Federal Reserve has confirmed that hackers breached an agency website and gained access to government information.

A Federal Reserve spokesman said the attack did not affect the "critical operations of the Federal Reserve System."

"The Federal Reserve System is aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product. The exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue," the spokesman said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

A Twitter user affiliated with the hacker activist group Anonymous claimed credit for the attack on Sunday.

The group posted a spreadsheet that allegedly contained the emails, phone numbers, log-in information and encrypted passwords of 4,000 bank employees around the country.

Technology news site ZDNet reported that the information belongs to the St. Louis Fed Emergency Communications System, a service that helps banks communicate with the Fed during disasters.

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