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Spelling mistake cost Hackers $870mn
Bangladesh's central bank suffered total damage of over $80 million in a cyber heist last month, but was lucky to keep hold of $870 million more after a spelling mistake suspended a money transfer requested by hackers, according to bank officials.
The theft took place on February 5, when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received dozens of payment instructions. The inquiries seemed to come from the Central Bank of Bangladesh and ordered money transfers to a number of accounts based in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Only it wasn’t the central bank that had sent the instructions, but rather a gang of hackers set on stealing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The criminals, allegedly in possession of the bank’s credentials, managed to get four transactions channeled offshore before the fifth, destined for Sri Lanka’s non-government Shalika Founation, was blocked by the Feds. The reason? It was addressing a ‘fandation,’ instead of ‘foundation.’
The hackers still got away with a total of $81 million, bank officials said.
The Bangladesh central bank was not able to immediately react to suspicious transfer activity since it wasn’t a working day in the country, media report.
“We have recovered the money that went to Sri Lanka and are working with anti-money-laundering authorities in the Philippines to recover the rest of the funds,” bank spokesman Subhankar Saha was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying.
However, it is still possible that the Bangladeshi government will sue the Federal Reserve for not stopping the transactions at the very beginning. "We kept money with the Federal Reserve Bank and irregularities must be with the people who handle the funds there. It can’t be that they don’t have any responsibility," Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said.
Bangladesh’s World Informatix and US-based FireEye Inc. have been hired to provide assistance in the investigation, Reuters cites sources familiar with the case. Preliminary investigations show there is no Shalika Foundation NGO registered in Sri Lanka.
The stolen money was first transferred to foreign exchange dealers, then to casinos, where it was converted to casino chips, and then from chips into cash that eventually landed in Hong Kong accounts, local outlet the Inquirer reports.
Comments
I don't think its true ,
I think the bank owners or workers was trying to steals it but they cannot
and after that they said that there is hackers because no one know the hackers !
If you make a transfer over $9.999 it will be proceeded after 48h and the sender will get a phone call from bank if there is something not as it should be. About $80 Million I dont think that can be transfered that easy withiut verification proccesses.
double post
seriously , Bangladesh has $870 million moving around? maybe 8.7 look believable
How ironic....easily done though Haha!
Who knows maybe in those countries is more safer then in the us and eu banks so they no need that security check. I was talking about big banks (BoA, Barcley, unicredit group etc) from experience.
'Fandation,' instead of 'foundation' isn't exactly a spelling mistake. This is someone who doesn't know what the word is. I suspect that someone understood the tech but was not an English speaker.
Cost them $870 million?
It didn't cost them nothing, they just lost out on money that doesn't belong to them anyway.
As @Nekki would say.. cunts.
That's for the masses, things are different in-house. Wasn't it like less than a year ago where almost a billion dollars got transfered to the wrong place due to a human mistake?
Definitely not for business accounts with US banks, medium/large companies can send millions without verification especially if there is a 2 step fob. 9999 transaction limits are a thing of the past online, different for cash of course.
Domestic wires are never really questioned, international different story.
Its all over the local TV channels here . Its weird how this has happened .Maybe there was some one or a group (staff) working at the bank and made this possible .