SAN FRANCISCO – EMC Corp. says its RSA security division has been hacked. The intruders compromised a widely used technology for preventing computer break-ins.
The breach is an embarrassment for one of premier security vendors and potentially threatens highly sensitive computer systems.
EMC's statement is a rare public acknowledgement by a security company that its internal anti-hacking technologies have been hacked. It is especially troubling because RSA's technology plays an important role in making sure unauthorized people aren't allowed to log into heavily guarded networks.
The scope of the attack wasn't immediately known, but the potential fallout could be widespread. RSA's customers include big military contractors, governments, various banks and medical facilities and health insurance outfits. Hopkinton, Mass.-based, EMC, the world's biggest maker of data-storage computers, itself is an RSA customer.
