Bank Negara foils cyber heist attempt
PETALING JAYA: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) detected and foiled a cybersecurity incident involving attempted unauthorised fund transfers using falsified SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) messages two days ago.
SWIFT is the world’s largest financial messaging service that facilitates the exchange of trillions of dollars daily.
The amount involved in the incident, that happened on March 27 was not disclosed, while the identity of the hackers is also yet to be identified.
In a statement released yesterday, BNM said all unauthorised transactions were stopped through prompt action in strong collaboration with SWIFT, other central banks and financial institutions.
BNM did not experience any financial loss in the incident. There was also no disruption to other payment and settlement systems that it operates.
BNM is conducting a comprehensive investigation in collaboration with local and international law enforcement agencies on the incident and remains on high alert.
It added that it is always on a state of readiness as future incidents will likely involve a higher degree of sophistication and design.
Financial institutions are advised to be vigilant on the heightened risk in cybersecurity and continue to strengthen their systems against such threats.
BNM assured the public that the Malaysian payment and settlement systems remained unaffected and continue to operate normally.
A similar case happened in India in February, where hackers tried to steal about US$2 million (RM7.7 million) from India’s City Union Bank by disabling its printer connected to SWIFT, a move to prevent the bank from receiving acknowledgement messages for three fraudulent payment instruction sent.
Last year, Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank and Nepal’s NIC Asia Bank reportedly lost about US$1 million.