NASDAQ OMX has brought in the US National Security Agency (NSA) to investigate a major attack that took place on the group’s network last year.

 

It said its application Directors Desk was the target, and that the Department of Justice had asked it not to disclose any further information.

 

"Through our normal security monitoring systems we detected suspicious files on the US servers unrelated to our trading systems and determined that our web facing application Directors Desk was potentially affected," it said in a statement. 

 

" We immediately conducted an investigation, which included outside forensic firms and US federal law enforcement. The files were immediately removed and at this point there is no evidence that any Directors Desk customer information was accessed or acquired by hackers. Our trading platform architecture operates independently from our web-facing services like Directors Desk and at no point was any of NASDAQ OMX’s operated or serviced trading platforms compromised."

 

Cyrptography Research President Paul Kocher, talking to Bloomberg, said the NSA’s involvement would help NASDAQ determine just how far the attack reached into NASDAQ’s network.

 

He said it also gave some information away as to the origin and nature of the attack.

 

"[Getting the NSA involved] means they think this is not just an attack by cyber criminals but by nation states. The NSA does not usually get involved in crimes with a goal to put somebody in jail, they get involved in real national security issues," Kocher said.

 

"What this suggests is that the integrity of the US markets and systems surrounding those really is a national security issue."

 

Kocher said highly sophisticated cyber security organizations would also be likely to be considered in this case.

 

Symantec Senior Vice President Francis DeSouza, also talking to Bloomberg, said similarities could be seen with the attack on NASDAQ to the attacks investigated by the NSA that were carried out on Google in 2009.

 

"Google was not targeted for its infrastructure, the goal was to steal information," DeSouza said. "It looks like that is the motive here - to take down infrastructure and get information. The assets themselves were the target."

 

The Directors Desk is known to contain confidential information regarding trades.

 

Either way, Kocher said the NSA’s involvement proves how vital NASDAQ is to the American economy.