London/Boston — Cyber hackers attacking the global bank
transfer system have kept stealing funds since February’s heist of $81m
from the Bangladesh central bank as their tactics become more
sophisticated.
That’s according to an official of the Swift messaging network and a
previously undisclosed letter it sent to banks worldwide on November 2.
Swift warned banks of threat to their systems rising. The attacks and
new hacking tactics underscore the continuing vulnerability of the
Swift messaging network, which handles trillions of dollars in fund
transfers daily.
"The threat is very persistent, adaptive and sophisticated — and it
is here to stay," Swift said in the letter to client banks, seen by
Reuters.
The disclosures provide fresh evidence that Swift remains at risk of
attacks nearly a year after funds were stolen from a Bangladesh Bank
account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The unprecedented cyber theft prompted regulators around the globe to
tighten bank-security requirements, amid a global investigation by the
FBI, Bangladesh authorities and Interpol.
Customer security head at Swift Stephen Gilderdale said banks using
the Swift network, including central and commercial banks, had been hit
by a "meaningful" number of attacks, about a fifth of them resulting in
stolen funds, since the Bangladesh heist.
Swift, a Belgium-based co-operative owned by user banks, previously
disclosed hacks of three Swift users since February, but said funds were
not lost.
In its letter, Swift warned customers that hackers have refined their
methods for compromising local bank systems. One new tactic involved
using software enabling technicians to access computers to provide
technical support.
"We unfortunately continue to see cases in which some of our
customers’ environments are being compromised" by thieves who then send
fraudulent payment instructions through the Swift network, the same sort
of messages used to steal Bangladesh Bank funds.
A top police investigator in Dhaka said on Monday Bangladesh central
bank officials exposed its computer systems, facilitating the theft, but
did not name them or say how many there were. Mohammad Shah Alam, head
of criminal investigation at the Forensic Training Institute of the
Bangladesh, said arrests were likely soon.
This is the first sign that investigators have a firm lead in one of
the world’s biggest cyber heists. Bangladesh Bank spokesman Subhankar
Saha declined to comment on Alam’s comments. A New York Fed spokeswoman
also declined comment.
Information sharing
Gilderdale would not name victims of more recent attacks or say how
much was stolen, but said the number of attempted heists was
"meaningful".
"In all of these cases, attackers are suspected of trying to replicate the modus operandi of the Bangladesh attackers," he said.
Intrusions were detected in a variety of ways, Gilderdale said. In
some cases, clients’ antivirus software identified malware. In others, a
new feature on Swift software alerted Swift directly on attempted
manipulation of a client’s system. In one case, a financial regulator
told Swift about an attempted attack.
Gilderdale said that despite new thefts, Swift believed the system was becoming more secure.
"In 80% of the cases that we are aware of and where we have completed
investigations, a fraud has not actually ended up taking place," he
said. "I personally am very pleased with the progress that we are
making."
Successful bank hackings were too rare to say whether an 80% success
rate was good or bad, Ben Caudill, a cyber security consultant with
Rhino Security Labs in Seattle, said.
In its letter, Swift said: "There are likely to be multiple groups of
cyber attackers attempting to compromise customer environments. There
has been an evolution in the modus operandi, signifying that attackers
are further adapting their methods."
Gilderdale said it was impossible to say for sure if the rate of
attacks was increasing because previously Swift did not track or get
information from clients about incidents.
Swift said that in all cases, infiltration involved customers’ Swift
interfaces and that its own central communications network had not been
compromised.
The additional attacks Swift disclosed to Reuters excluded others
that had already come to light since the Bangladesh Bank heist.
Thieves stole $250,000 from Bangladesh’s Sonali bank in 2013. More
than $12m was stolen from Ecuador’s Banco del Austro in 2015. Vietnam’s
Tien Phong Bank said in May that it foiled an attempt to steal money via
Swift.
Reuters/
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