Hacktivists target CNB in Isle of Man

(CNS): Cayman National Bank has announced that its subsidiaries in the Isle of Man were hacked by a well known hacking group on Sunday. Although the bank has not named that group, it appears from European media that it was Phineas Fisher, an infamous, anti-capitalist vigilante hacker group that targets banks and other major corporations to expose and leak what they see as public interest data.

The group released a new manifesto on Friday offering a bug bounty, urging the hacking community to target institutions and leak relevant data to the public in exchange for a reward.

Cayman National said the data theft occurred at Cayman National Bank and Cayman National Trust on the Isle of Man, but neither the bank in Cayman nor related companies based here were impacted. The bank explained in a release that the group’s servers are separate.

“The operations in the Cayman Islands do not share common systems, databases, client information, or email platforms with those in Isle of Man,” Cayman National stated, saying it was “confident that the hack is contained within the Isle of Man operations only, and does not affect CNB or any other business in the Cayman Islands”.

The bank is now working with relevant regulators and law enforcement around the world, as Cayman National was not the only bank targetted by the hackers this weekend.

“Cayman National takes any breach of data security very seriously and a specialist IT forensic investigation is underway, with appropriate actions being taken to ensure that the clients… are protected,” the bank said, noting that “there is no evidence of financial theft or fraud”.

According to reports from Europe, Phineas Fisher is one of the most influential and well known hacktivist groups. Their identities have never been made public and European law enforcement agencies admit they have no idea who they are. But on Friday the group offered rewards up to $100,000 in cryptocurrencies for hackers for politically motivated or public interest hacks and urged them to hit banks and major fossil fuel related businesses.

Cayman National’s Isle of Man subsidiaries appear to be some of the first victims, and officials from the entities are in the process of notifying their customers of the data breach.

CNC said Isle of Man customers with questions should email dataenquiry@caymannational.im.

Periodic updates will also be available at www.caymannational.im