UPDATE - Hacker's attack on Banque Cantonale de Geneve

A group of hackers calling itself Rex Mundi will release client data stolen this week from the Banque Cantonale de Geneve today unless they get a ransom the bank said it won’t pay.

Hackers will publish more than 30,000 e-mails and client records by 6:00 p.m. today if the ransom isn’t paid, the group said in a statement linked from its Twitter Inc. account. Phone numbers, e-mail addresses and e-mails for two individuals were included in the statement as a demonstration.

“If we do not get paid in the meantime, we will post the Banque Cantonale de Geneve #leak tonight on our website,” Rex Mundi said on Twitter today. “We would like to wish a merry tax audit to all the non-Swiss account holders listed in the BCGE files.”

The bank, which is partly owned by the canton of Geneva, said in statements on its website that “little usable information” was stolen, not relating to clients’ financial information. All affected clients are being contacted by their advisers.

Banque Cantonale de Geneve “stands with its decision” to refuse the ransom demand, Helene De Vos Vuadens, a spokeswoman for the bank. “We do not want to give in to the blackmail.”

Here is link on hacker's tweeter acc. https://twitter.com/rexmundi14

Hackers steal client data from Geneva bank

The Banque Cantonale de Genève said on Thursday that the theft had affected several thousand of its estimated 240,000 clients but that there had been "no financial damage."

The hackers, calling themselves Rex Mundi, were threatening to publish some 30,000 emails of the affected clients if the bank did not hand over €10,000 ($11,800) by Friday, Le Temps newspaper reported.

The threat was reportedly made on Twitter.

The cantonal bank, which focuses on small and medium-sized businesses and on portfolio investments, refused to comment on the blackmail report when contacted by AFP.

BCGE said the authorities have launched an investigation into the hacking.

The stolen data included names, addresses, telephone numbers and account numbers.

The bank said it had beefed up internet security and blocked access to online forms.