Hackers tried to steal $951 million; $850 million was saved: Bangladesh Bank

Bangladesh Bank has said hackers tried to steal $951 million from its account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The central bank said in a post on its Facebook page on Friday that a transfer of $850 million was halted.

The bank’s spokesperson AFM Asaduzzaman confirmed the authenticity of the post to bdnews24.com.

“It is Bangladesh Bank’s page. We used it as a means to inform the people because Friday is a holiday,” he said.

The central bank said in the post that the hackers had ordered 35 transfers during the cyber attack.

Of the transfers, 30 transfers worth $850 million were successfully prevented, it said.

The remaining five transfers involving $101 million could not be blocked.

It said $20 million of the salvaged funds has already been retrieved.

“The process to return the remaining $81 million is underway,” the bank said.

“The arraying of the latest prevention system in Bangladesh Bank’s information technology platform is being sped up to prevent cyber attacks in the future.

“The people are being asked not to become anxious over the matter,” it added.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported last week hackers had stolen more than $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York by issuing payment instructions through Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), a secure financial messaging system.

Of the total funds, $81 million was transferred into five accounts with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) in the country, the daily said.

Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp (Pagcor) said $46 million found its way into the casino industry.

The rest of the funds were somehow smuggled out.

Transfer of another $20 million to a fake Sri Lankan non-profit organisation was held up because the hackers had misspelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation, according to Reuters.