The security breach at Citigroup Inc., which lost personal information of 210,000 credit card customers to hackers, is just the latest of a string of cyber attacks on high-profile companies.

The successful targets of hackers the past two months include data storage firm EMC Ltd, information technology provider Lockheed Martin, electronics giant Sony Corp., and search giant Google Inc.

Google Inc. said the phishing attack on its Gmail accounts targeted, among others, senior U.S. government officials and Chinese political activists and journalists. The U.S. government is assessing if security had been compromised by the Gmail attack, which originated in China.

Citigroup said hackers accessed the data of 1%, or estimated 210,000, bank card holders in North America and did not rule out the possibility of fraudulent charges on the accounts. Sony lost to hackers credit card information of 12.3 million account holders after a breached of its PlayStation and said the breach would cost it $170 million.

In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies are taking action against cyber criminals. In 2010, the Secret Service arrested more than 1,200 suspects for cybercrime violations. These investigations involved over $500 million in actual fraud loss and prevented approximately $7 billion in additional losses. However, this may not be enough. However, hackers in the recent high-profile attacks have not been charged or arrested.

Monetization

Many hackers break into computers and computer networks for profit. Last year for example, the FBI discovered a major international cyber crime network, which had used Zeus -- a Trojan horse that steals banking information -- to hack into computers and make unathorized transfers.

"As we all know, the Internet has led to incredible commercial growth and an unprecedented means for self-expression and innovation. Some industry analysts now estimate that the Internet now carries some $10 trillion in online transactions annually," Ari Schwartz, Internet Policy Adviser at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and member of the Internet Policy Task Force at the U.S. Department of Commerce, said in a post on June 8.

"However, each time a new technology dramatically expands the boundaries of commerce, there are dishonest, dangerous people who try to disrupt and exploit the new pathways for their own gain. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that as the Web, e-mail, and e-commerce have become the electronic version of Main Street, hackers, spammers, and cybercriminals have emerged as major threats to its welfare. An estimated 67,000 new malicious viruses, worms, spyware and other threats are released every day."

Politics

"If Zeus shows us that criminals have their minds on our money, Aurora, APTs, Stuxnet, and Anonymous remind us that some threat agents have more than money on their minds, " a study by the United States Secret Service and Verizon Business said.

"While many cybercriminals look to steal money and information, there are some who also seek to destroy, disrupt and threaten the delivery of critical services. These individuals are relentless in their pursuits - they work day and night to use our dependence on cyberspace against us, " Secrete Service Director Sullivan said in a speech in April.

A report early this month by NATO, a powerful military alliance of countries from North America and Europe, noted that the Internet has made state and society much more vulnerable to attacks such as computer intrusions, scrambling software programs, undetected insiders within computer firewalls, or cyber terrorists.

NATO Parliamentary Assembly General Rapporteur Lord Jopling said in his report that Anonymous, a prominent group of on-line hackers, poses a hazard that needs to be taken seriously.

Anonymous has led a campaign against companies stopped providing services for WikiLeaks, which released the US diplomatic cables and other sensitive information. The U.S. government received the most serious blow when the "anti-secrecy" organization WikiLeaks published, among other things, Pentagon documents on the Afghan war and the Iraq War and 250,000 confidential US diplomatic cables on diplomats' candid assessments of terrorist threats and the behaviour of world leaders.

Anonymous earlier launched a campaign against Iran, Australia and the Church of Scientology. In its on-line seven-point manifesto, Anonymous announced its engagement in "the first infowar ever fought" and named PayPal as its enemy. Anonymous has also been linked to the first cyber attacks against Sony.

Jopling warned that Anonymous could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files.

Global initiative

NATO's Jopling suggested, among many things, that on the global level, NATO should support initiatives to negotiate at least some international legal ground rules for the cyber domain. He added that NATO should consider applying common funding procedures for procurement of some critical cyber defence capabilities for its member states.

Jopling stated, "As sources of cyber attacks are usually impossible to trace, it cannot be said with certainty who has, so far, dominated "the cyber world". Nevertheless, when it comes to the involvement of states in cyber attacks, Russia and China are said to be the usual suspects. From what we know today, terrorist groups such as al Qaeda do not yet have the capability to carry out such attacks. In the future, however, organized crime and hacker groups could sell their services to terrorist groups."

At a security summit organized by the EastWest Institute in London last week, politicians and business leaders from different nations acknowledged that cyber security is a big problem.

With the prevalence of the cyber crimes and electronic attacks, governments are clamoring to work together to come up with cyber security strategies. The United States, the United Kingdom, China and other countries have already pledged to spend more money for cyber warfare. Leaders have also pledged to work on international co-operation agreements to help catch and prosecute cyber thieves hiding in different countries. However, these pledges have so far remained lip service.

With 2011 already labeled by some as "the year of the hack", it is imperative that leaders come up with an effective and definitive framework to fight against cyber crime sooner than later.