CBN BEWARE: How hackers stole $101 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh

Hackers stole $101 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh after monitoring the activities of the bank for two weeks.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anounced recently that it had suspended key personnel connected to a “fraudulent transaction”, although it did not give figures.

But the development in Bangladesh would seem to suggest that central banks are now being targeted by fraudsters.

According to an interim investigation report seen by Bloomberg, the Bangladesh hackers were said to have stolen $101 million from the apex bank after stalking its computer systems for almost two weeks.

The report prepared by cyber security firms FireEye Inc. and World Informatix, shows how cyber criminals can use banks’ own systems against them.

The cyber companies say the thieves deployed malware on servers housed at the central bank to make payments seem genuine.

The report says the unidentified hackers are a sophisticated group who sought to cover their tracks by deleting computer logs as they went by, making transfers.

“These threat actors appear to be financially motivated, and well organized,” the report said adding that they also sneaked through the network, inserting software that would allow re-entry.

The heist, which saw payments processed through the bank’s accounts at the US Federal Reserve and money moved to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, was part of a bigger attempt to steal nearly $1 billion in total from the central bank.

The massive heist, which exposed weaknesses in systems, was partially scuttled by The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which blocked transactions worth another $850 million.

The hackers sent $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account in New York to the Philippines, and another $20 million to Sri Lanka.

A bank in Sri Lanka stopped and returned the cash, while the money in the Philippines is still missing, costing, Atiur Rahman, the central bank governor, his job less than five months before he planned to retire.

Investigation still ongoing, as of March 16, the FireEye team said it was about half-way through the examination of the central bank’s computer network.