Bangladesh Bank Is Yet To Get Its Money Back

The February 2016 cyber heist in which Bangladesh’s central bank lost $81 billion still remains unsolved:

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It is now more than a year that a daring cyber heist hit Bangladesh Bank and $101 million was siphoned off in minutes using a reported glitch in the SWIFT messaging system. While the money trail led investigators to private accounts mostly in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the case is still wide open and only a small fraction of the money that Bangladesh’s central bank lost could be retrieved. Nevertheless, the investigations bring to the fore the sophisticated, international nature of the crime. Going by the patterns used in hacking the systems, the investigators are now pointing to the involvement of North Korea. Even American federal investigators say this could be possible but one disturbing revelation is that insiders too could be part of the crime. The investigations have revealed that several of the central bank’s laid down security procedures were violated - like the security cameras were put off, there were obvious lapses in several of the protocols that are required to be met before the SWIFT system authorizes payment, and the New York Fed readily accepting some of the messages the hackers had generated through the system.

Security researchers say the intrusion could have been made possible by malware and a faulty printer for the initial breach of the computer systems of the Bangladesh Bank as well as weak security procedures in the bank. The bank’s governor and two deputy governors quit their jobs.

$15 MN RECOVERED

Bangladesh could recover only $15 million of the $81 million that went to the Philippines accounts, while payments of $20 million made to Sri Lanka accounts were reversed before they could be withdrawn.