Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is preparing for a potential onslaught of embarrassing and perhaps damaging information about the bank from Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, according to a report in the New York Times.

Last November, Assange warned that he would unleash documents purporting to reveal an "ecosystem of corruption" at a prominent U.S. bank – many have speculated that Bank of America is the target. Assange himself once claimed he has a hard drive of a bank’s executive with five gigabytes of data in his possession.

The Times report said that the Bank has established a team of 15 to 20 company officials, led by the chief risk officer, Bruce R. Thompson, to oversee a broad internal investigation — “scouring thousands of documents in the event that they become public, reviewing every case where a computer has gone missing and hunting for any sign that its systems might have been compromised.”

Also, the bank has retained the services of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton to help manage the review.
The report stated that the bank has also sought out advice from several legal firms to ascertain the bank’s potential liabilities in the event of significant disclosures.

Last month, Bank of America joined companies such as MasterCard and PayPal to stop the processing of payments intended for WikiLeaks, claiming that Assange’s activities could be illegal.

Nyse The New York Times Bank of america New York