SWIFT claims Bangladesh Bank cyber heist not because of its system failure

SWIFT has claimed that the hacking of the US account of Bangladesh Bank that led to $101 million reserves being stolen was not because of its system failure.

It has, however, assured the central bank of all cooperation in the investigation into the heist.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a global provider of secure financial messaging services. All the central and commercial banks around the world are its members.

Money from one country to another is transferred through the SWIFT. It provides a secret number to each of its members for operating a code or system.

It has been reported that after hacking Bangladesh Bank’s system, the hackers had transferred the bank’s funds from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to fake personal accounts in two banks in the Philippines and Sri Lanka by sending transfer messages through SWIFT.

The central bank is trying to find out whether there was any negligence on the part of Federal Reserve.

It is also trying to ascertain whether any other organisation was responsible for the heist, one of the biggest in history.

Recently, SWIFT’s CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt in a letter to its members in Bangladesh said there was no incident of hacking into their system.

Even the Federal Reserve Bank also claimed that their system was not breached.

This means the entire responsibility for the heist now lies on Bangladesh Bank.

SWIFT Member and User Group of Bangladesh’s Secretary General AMM Farhad has received the letter.

In the letter, the SWIFT advised banks in Bangladesh to take adequate protection against malware.

But the banks will be responsible for setup, maintenance and monitoring for its network system, the SWIFT CEO said in the letter.

Farhad, however, declined to give any comment over the phone when bdnews24.com contacted him to know contents of the letter in details.

Recently, two representatives of the SWIFT visited Bangladesh Bank. They also held meeting with investigating agencies and SWIFT user group.

About the SWIFT officials, Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Subhankar Saha on Mar 19 said, "They will take a look at the SWIFT system for any glitches and whether it needs to be upgraded."

He added that the SWIFT representatives will also try to find out why the money was transferred using its system.