Morgan Stanley has reportedly experienced a "very sensitive" hacking of its network.
A report by Bloomberg said the same China-based hackers who attacked Google’s computers more than a year ago are behind the attack, which is believed to be the first financial institution identified in the series of attacks.
Bloomberg cited leaked e-mails from California-based computer security company HBGary. The e-mails said the bank considered details of the break-in a top secret.
HBGary senior security engineer Phil Wallisch was quoted in the report as saying that he read an internal report of Morgan Stanley that carried details of the so-called Aurora attacks.
Operation Aurora is a hacking strategy allegedly launched in China to target employees of some large multinationals.
The leaked e-mails did not specify the information that may have been stolen from Morgan Stanley, according to the report. HBGary was not immediately available for comment, while Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
After an attack that lasted for months, Google had said in January 2010 that it was one of 20 major US companies to be attacked by hackers using China-based servers.
McAfee chief technology officer George Kurtz had termed the event as the "largest and most sophisticated cyberattack we have seen in years targeted at specific corporations."
