Swift hacks sees 12 more banks under attack
Swift CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt
Investigators are looking at more potential computer breaches following the three hacking incidents on Swift’s payment network, according to Bloomberg.
The three attacks comprised a $101 million cyber heist in Bangladesh – the biggest cyber heist in history; Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank stopping an attempted wire fraud; and Ecuador’s Banco del Austro losing around $9 million.
It seems as many as 12 banks have “irregularities similar” to those in the theft from the Bangladesh central bank, according to a “person familiar with the probe”.
According to Bloomberg, the dozen banks, mostly in South East Asia, have contacted FireEye, the security company hired by the Bangladesh Bank, “because of signs that hackers may have breached their networks”.
The banks comprise ones in New Zealand and in the Philippines, but not in the US or Western Europe. It is not known if any money has been taken. FireEye has declined to comment.
A Swift spokeswoman, Natasha de Teran, says: “As we have stated before, we are actively looking into other possible instances of such fraud, but we will not comment on individual entities.”
Recently, Swift struck back over the three hack attacks. It unveiled a five-part plan to reinforce security across its network after the incidents. At the 14th annual European Financial Services Conference in Brussels; Swift CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt outlined its “Customer Security Programme”.
