How Russian hackers stole the Nasdaq

There's commonplace, everyday, garden-variety hacking that is irritating but often doesn't involve more than changing a few passwords.
 
And then there's computer hacking that has the potential to shut down an entire financial system. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that in 2010, such an attack was launched against Nasdaq by the intelligence agency of a foreign country.
 
The attempted attack triggered a five-month investigation that ultimately involved multiple security agencies and revealed how vulnerable many of the nation's complex systems are, from financial institutions to utilities and refineries.
 
It also introduced a new phrase into the hacking-world lexicon: zero day, a previously undetected flaw in computer code that allows developers "zero days" to fix it before hackers take control of a system. The zero-day vulnerabilities exploited by the Nasdaq hackers is believed to have had the capability of wiping out the entire exchange, Bloomberg reports.

Read more from Bloomberg Businessweek.