UK Cyber Fraud
Recently a cyber-gang in Bangladesh stole $81 million from the Bangladesh’s central bank.
Due to this the Bank of England is calling for banks to check they are complying with current security practices recommended by SWIFT. This is probably the first time a major central bank has ordered its member banks to undertake a security review following a security breach.
Last February the gang set up five transactions worth $101 million that would have withdrawn this amount from the bank of Bangladesh. An amount of $20million to Sri Lanka was stopped but the $81million to the Philippines is still being recovered.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York also blocked another 30 transactions amounting to $850million at the request of the Bank of Bangladesh.
Whilst these figures are large enough to get the attention of the BoE and a reaction, it is perhaps the tip of the iceberg.
As the business and banking sector continue to move towards a more online banking model there is only one direction the issue is going. Hackers and cyber-gangs will be continually evolving and it will be the authorities that are normally forced into a reactive state. Unless they can be proactive and try and plug security issues before the thieves can find and take advantage of any loophole, these situations will only increase in frequency and volume.
Cyber security in all its aspects is becoming the hot topic in business and banking circles. It is the duty of all of us to ensure we do our bit to restrict the issues and reduce exposure as much as possible.
Please read our other articles on making your situation as secure as possible
https://kehorne.co.uk/blog/2016/06/wordpress-online-security/
https://kehorne.co.uk/blog/2016/04/take-cybersecurity-seriously/
