₹94 crore stolen as Pune bank’s systems hacked

HACKERS SEEM TO HAVE CARRIED OUT A MALWARE ATTACK ON THE BANK’S ATM SERVER TO GAIN CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD DETAILS

PUNE: A multinational hacking ring allegedly stole ₹94 crore from the Pune-headquartered Cosmos Bank on August 11 and 13, mainly by gaining access to the bank’s systems.

The sophisticated attack seems to have involved a malware attack on the bank’s ATM server to gain credit and debit card details of customers; the approval of unauthorised transactions using these cards, often in excess of the amounts available for withdrawal in these accounts; and a SWIFT (a sort of money telegram between banks) transaction, again unauthorised, on the bank.

Cosmos Bank chairman Milind Kale described the cyber crime as an attack on the Indian banking industry from multinational cyber criminals operating from 22 nations. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, he said none of the fraudulent transactions have been debited to any of the customer’s accounts.

The Pune police commissioner K Venkatesham said experts from the Mumbai police and the local cyber crime investigation team have initiated investigations.“we have sought more details, especially technical details of logs from the bank. We are in constant touch with our headquarters and briefing them about the case ,” he said.

An FIR was lodged against unidentified persons by a bank executive Suhas Subhash Gokhale (53) under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 379 (theft), 420 (cheating),120 (B) (conspiracy) and 34 and sections 43,65,66 (C) and 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act at Chatushringi Police Station on Monday night.

The attack may have originated from Canada, where many of the transactions were conducted, according to bank officials who asked not to be identified.

The FIR stated that during the malware attack, a proxy switch was created and all payment approvals were passed by the proxy switching system.

In the first attack on August 11, using stolen card details, approximately ₹78 crore was withdrawn in transactions in 28 countries.