Skip to main content

Hackers leak Citigroup CEO’s personal data after Occupy Wall Street arrests

vikram-pandit-citigroup-cabincr3w

In retaliation for the arrest of protesters who tried to close their Citibank accounts, hackers sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street movement have released personal information about Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit.

Data, including cell and office phone numbers, an email address, two home addresses, legal and financial information and information about Pandit’s family, were all posted online by members of a hacker group known as CabinCr3w. The group affiliates itself with the loose-knit group Anonymous, which has a long history of high-profile hacks and data leaks.

Anonymous members played a key role in promoting the original Occupy Wall Street protest, which began on September 17. A month later, the Occupy movement has spread to more than 900 cities around the world, primarily through the use of Twitter and other social media and Internet properties.

“During Occupy Wall street, protesters had made way to CitiBank to withdraw their funds and close their accounts,” wrote CabinCr3w on their Tumblr blog. “They were met with strong police prescence [sic] and arrested. We as american citizens MUST have full control over our money and lively hood. When this is taken away from us, what else do we have? So the CEO of CitiBank has blindly jumped into the sights of the CabinCr3w…”

This weekend, a small group of Occupy Wall Street protesters moved their fight to a Citibank in downtown Manhattan, where they attempted to close their bank accounts as an act of protest. According to the Wall Street Journal, 24 people in the group were arrested for criminal trespassing after they refused to leave the Citibank branch.

“A large amount of protesters entered our branch at 555 La Guardia Place around 2:00 PM today,” said Citigroup in a prepared statement. “They were very disruptive and refused to leave after being repeatedly asked, causing our staff to call 911. The Police asked the branch staff to close the branch until the protesters could be removed. Only one person asked to close an account and was accommodated.”

Last week, Pandit said he would be happy to meet with Occupy Wall Street protesters, who blame the financial sector for the bad economy, and oppose its influence on US politics, reports Businessweek. He said their complaints are “completely understandable.”

[Image via]

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
Save over $100 on this SanDisk rugged 2TB external SSD
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD sitting next to keys.

Whether it's important files for work or memorable photos and videos of your personal life, you'll want to keep them in a durable storage device like the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. If you don't own an external SSD like this one yet, here's your chance to buy it for nearly half its original price as the 2TB model is on sale from Best Buy for $122 instead of $225, for savings of $103. You shouldn't waste time thinking about it as the deal may disappear at any moment, after which we're not sure when it will return.

Why you should buy the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 2TB
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is a rugged external SSD that's built to protect all kinds of digital files. It's the SanDisk Extreme Pro with data transfer speeds of up to 2,000 MBps that's featured in our roundup of the best external hard drives as the best portable external hard drive, but the SanDisk Extreme is practically the same portable SSD, albeit with read speeds of up to 1,050 MBps and write speeds of up to 1,000 MBps. The speed difference is an acceptable trade-off for the lower price of the SanDisk Extreme, though it will still be pretty quick for most people since SSDs can process data faster than HDDs, according to our guide on how to buy an external hard drive.

Read more
Nvidia is bringing ChatGPT-style AI to video games, and I’m already worried
Nvidia CEO delivering a keynote at Computex.

Nvidia is bringing generative AI to video games. Announced during its Computex 2023 keynote, Nvidia ACE is a new platform that allows developers to use generative AI to power conversations with characters in games.

Think ChatGPT, but instead of a general-purpose chatbot, you get a chatbot with a specific backstory and lore. Nvidia is stressing that flexibility is one of the most important aspects of ACE, as it will allow characters to have a fleshed-out backstory that informs their responses and keeps them from getting too off-topic. The company's recently announced NeMo Guardrails play a role in this, directing the conversation away from topics the developer doesn't intend.

Read more
Nvidia’s supercomputer may bring on a new era of ChatGPT
Nvidia's CEO showing off the company's Grace Hopper computer.

Nvidia has just announced a new supercomputer that may change the future of AI. The DGX GH200, equipped with nearly 500 times more memory than the systems we're familiar with now, will soon fall into the hands of Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

The goal? Revolutionizing generative AI, recommender systems, and data processing on a scale we've never seen before. Are language models like GPT going to benefit, and what will that mean for regular users?

Read more