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Zeauddin Ahmed
In 2016, hackers robbed 101 million US {dollars} of Bangladesh Financial institution’s reserve saved on the Federal Reserve Financial institution (Fed) of New York. Of the 101 million {dollars}, 81 million was transferred to Philippines’ Rizal Business Financial institution and 20 million was wired to Sri Lanka.
It has been attainable to recuperate 20 million {dollars} which was transferred to Sri Lanka whereas a tiny portion of the cash transferred to the Philippines has been recuperated. It may well’t be said with certainty when the remainder of the hacked cash that was despatched to the Philippines will be recovered. Nonetheless, Bangladesh’s Ambassador to the Philippines in an interview, said that the Authorities of Bangladesh was working tirelessly to redeem the remainder of the cash and he was hopeful that they’ll be capable of redeem that cash. It’s to be talked about that the fiasco got here to this example as theRizal Financial institution of the Philippines uncared for the ‘cease cost’ directive issued by Bangladesh Financial institution and handed over the cash to the gamblers violating all of the internationally accepted anti-money laundering protocols together with Know Your Buyer (KYC) rule.
A lot of the Bangladesh Financial institution governors, aside from a handful, have been bureaucrats. A non-bureaucrat and instructor, Dr. Atiur Rahman, when appointed as governor of Bangladesh Financial institution, rapidly rose to fame as a dynamic and artistic regulator each out and in of Bangladesh Financial institution. This ascendance of Dr. Atiur Rahman additionally improved the repute of Bangladesh Financial institution each within the home in addition to the worldwide arenas. In 2009, after Dr. Atiur Rahman was appointed governor, he changed the archaic teleprinters and electro-mechanical typewriters used as Bangladesh Financial institution’s worldwide communication system, with the most recent era of SWIFT transmission system. SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Monetary Telecommunications, is probably the most dependable worldwide financial institution transaction community.The community, which was established in 1973, has a number of layers of safety infrastructure. To facilitate quick and protected financial transactions, 11,000 monetary establishments unfold over 200 international locations use the SWIFT community. A global hacker gang launched malware on this protected world cost system led by SWIFT community and robbed part of the Bangladesh Financial institution’s reserve stored on the New York Fed.
Bangladesh Financial institution maintains a present account with the Federal Reserve Financial institution, which is the central financial institution of the USA. Bangladesh Financial institution makes use of that account for overseas transactions on behalf of assorted banks and authorities entities in addition to for reimbursement of loans. In keeping with worldwide media reviews by CNN and Al Jazeera, hackers had infiltrated the system a lot earlier by means of a malware and noticed the transaction sample between the 2 banks for fairly some time earlier than lastly conducting the hacking. Hackers lastly selected Thursday nightfall because the time for his or her assault because the weekend in Bangladesh begins from Thursday afternoon however Fed stays open on Thursday and Friday. Thus, the artificially generated faux transaction orders made by hackers in Thursday night (Bangladesh time) reached the Consumed Thursday morning (US time) and the hacking was profitable. On Friday, a Bangladesh Financial institution worker upon checking into the devoted pc for SWIFT transactions with Fed, discovered no messages. Bangladesh Financial institution Dealing Workplace personnel grew to become suspicious on Saturday after they discovered no messages got here to the pc even on that day.
After a variety of effort, Bangladesh Financial institution officers have been capable of recuperate three messages despatched by Consumed Saturday night. In these messages, Fed requested for explanations for the 46 transaction requests apparently despatched from Bangladesh Financial institution to Fed (which have been, in reality,despatched by hackers). Bangladesh Financial institution officers have been additionally struck after studying the messages asking for rationalization for the massive quantity of transaction requests made on Thursday.Often no cost recommendation (transaction request) is made on Thursday. Furthermore, the same old norm is that Bangladesh makes at greatest two-three cost directions per day. So, the massive quantity of cost recommendation by means of dozens of directions got here as a shock for them. It was additionally not attainable to know in regards to the recipients of the transaction because the devoted pc and printer was additionally hacked by worldwide hackers who have been capable of delete all of the messages.
Because the Fed was closed on Saturday, it was not attainable to contact them over the telephone. Again then, the Fed nonetheless hadn’t began the emergency 24/7 hotline. Later in an interview with the New York Instances, when Dr. Atiur Rahman raised this situation, Fed took discover instantly and established the hotline shortly thereafter. Regardless of the antagonistic circumstances, a message was despatched to the Fed to instantly halt all transaction requests from Bangladesh Financial institution together with these uncommon 46 particular paymentsadvice. However the Fed obtained the messages on Monday morning when it opened. By then it was already Tuesday in Bangladesh. Using this world mismatch of weekend, hackers transferred the robbed cash from Bangladesh Financial institution’s present account at Fed to banks in Sri Lanka and Philippines.
Courtesy of Chinese language New 12 months vacation and weekend, the Philippines was closed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The Philippines’ financial institution received the transaction request of 81 million USD on Friday. The financial institution was closed for the following three days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday for Chinese language New 12 months celebrations and weekend. To cease cost, Bangladesh Financial institution despatched cease funds particular marked directives to the Philippines. However the Philippines Financial institution disregarded the cease cost directive and made cost of 81 million USD to the fraud account created for the hackers by that financial institution with out sustaining the KYC protocol.The Bangladesh Financial institution directive in its inbox which was crowded with 800 unread directives amassed over the earlier three days was ignored by RCBC, most likely intentionally. The e-mail exchanges throughout the digital system of the financial institution mirrored that the instruction was intentionally ignored by that financial institution. Thankfully, that path of exchanges reached BFIU officers later. On Tuesday, the then Bangladesh Financial institution Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman personally referred to as the Philippines Central Financial institution Governor and requested him to cease the cost. Philippines Central Financial institution Governor requested Dr Atiur to file a written software stating the identical and requested him to keep up secrecy till the difficulty was investigated and full information emerged. The joint determination made by each the governors to keep up confidentiality to be sure that hackers are usually not alerted by the publicity of the occasion has been thought of as the right transfer contemplating the worldwide requirements. The Philippine Central Financial institution Governor moved swiftly and fined an enormous sum to RCBC for its non-compliance of anti-money laundering drills. He additionally went to the Senate to start out a listening to towards that financial institution for which the President of the nation got here open to say that he won’t go to Bangladesh till all the cash have been returned to Bangladesh.
Within the Philippines, it was attainable to transform black cash into white by channeling it by means of the casinos. Although an act towards cash laundering was in enforcement within the Philippines, till lately casinos have been exempted from that cash laundering act. Confidentiality was maintained within the casinos as to the sources of the cash in addition to about who the recipients of the cash have been. As talked about earlier, the Rizal Checking account, the place the Bangladesh Financial institution’s hacked reserve was transferred, was opened with a faux title. The account was opened with out essential KYC and remained idle for an extended interval earlier than the Bangladesh Financial institution hacking passed off. Opening a checking account with a faux title, the account remaining idle for an extended whereas, sudden activation of the account on the eve of the cash switch and unusually quick clearing of the transaction request, all these information clearly point out collaboration between Rizal Financial institution and hackers. It was clearly an act of cash laundering, a punishable crime by worldwide legislation. Little doubt, the Philippine central financial institution and legislation makers moved swiftly to recuperate the cash from that rogue financial institution.
Individuals are duping and being duped all of the whereas. However, they’re additionally erecting defenses to guard themselves from fraudsters. On this digital age, the tempo of the world has elevated with out priority. Digitizing has its personal utility in addition to dangers. The stronger the protection mechanisms, the decrease are the dangers of infiltration. In the meantime, hackers are constantly sharpening their expertise to hack by means of ever stronger digital protection mechanisms. Even the likes of Pentagon, USA Election Fee, Russian Central Financial institution, Yahoo and Google have been victims of hacking. The Digital Age has now became a steady warfare of tug between hackers and defenders. On this digital age, the pace of improve in commerce and transactions has now been surpassed by the tempo of improve within the amount of cash robbed by hackers worldwide. Some digital consultants’ mis-utilization of their expertise within the pursuit of breaking the digital defenses to aim unlawful financial beneficial properties has gained momentum in recent times. Because of the breakneck pace of digital growth, international locations all around the world have did not cease manufacturing of faux forex regardless of implementing state-of-art security measures. Hackers are constantly hacking debit card and bank card passwords and robbing folks off their hard-earned cash. Bangladesh has additionally been sufferer of such ATM machine hacking assaults a number of occasions dropping lakhs of taka within the course of. Monetary establishments all around the globe have been victims to such assaults and they’re making an attempt their greatest to enhance their protection mechanisms.
North Korean and Chinese language hackers are very lively internationally on this enviornment. In keeping with The New York Instances and Al Jazeera, Bangladesh Financial institution hacking was additionally carried out by the North Korean and Chinese language hackers. The FBI investigation additionally indicated this. It has been reported that North Korea offers state safety to its hackers as they’re used to steal cash from all around the world and hold the economic system of North Korea operating which is reeling from the financial sanctions imposed by the USA. Hackers have to date infiltrated the SWIFT community of banks in Ecuador, Taiwan, Vietnam, Poland, India, and Russia and made switch requests. These hackers have been even profitable to take away any hint of the switch requests after hacking into the system. The hackers have been even capable of take away any hint of the switch request within the account at Fed. Thus, the truth that a switch request was constituted of a sure account was additionally hacked into non-existence. Such is the digital dexterity of those hackers. However none of those international locations went for self-inflicting ‘blame video games’ like those seen in Bangladesh.
Many cyber-attacks have been aimed toward monetary establishments all around the world. In 2013, cyber-attacks have been made on the pc system and the servers of a number of South Korean banks, bringing these banks to a grinding halt. In 2017, two lakh computer systems all around the world have been hacked and ransom was demanded which was to be paid by means of Bitcoin. Newspaper headlines on September 9, learn, ‘Turkish hackers wreak havoc at Myanmar authorities web sites. It has been reported that the hacking was carried out as a protest of Myanmar authorities’s persecution of Rakhines in Arakan Province. Just some days again, hackers broke into the community of a business financial institution in India and stole thousands and thousands of {dollars}. A latest newspaper article reported that North Korean hackers had infiltrated into the army database of South Korea and stole 235 gigabytes of categorised army paperwork. These paperwork reportedly contained the most recent plan of motion of South Korea and its ally USA in case of a warfare and a secret plan of assassination of North Korean management. Two years in the past, Russian hackers broke by means of the defenses of Kaspersky Safety System and tried to steal confidential paperwork containing the main points of actions of US particular operatives. Throughout the identical time, Israel got here to know in regards to the Russian espionage actions whereas it too was making an attempt to interrupt by means of the identical Kaspersky Safety System. Israel stored mum about the entire affair.
One other information article from The Sangbad reported that Australian Protection Masterplan’s categorised info was stolen by hackers by means of subtle measures. In 2010, Jullian Assange created a stir by hacking into computer systems and publishing hundreds of categorised US paperwork by means of his vigilante group, Wikileaks. US and British safety equipment cautioned that soccer followers touring to the FIFA World Cup in Russia have been susceptible to the chance of cell and pc hacking.
In retaliation for the comedian depiction of North Korean chief Kim Jong Un within the film ‘The Interview’, hackers attacked the producers of the film, Sony Footage. Thisisone of the most important hacks of latest time the place hackers stole large quantities of knowledge from the server of Sony Footage in addition to deleting a variety of necessary info from the exhausting drives. Throughout the Lok Sabha elections in India, a video of Trinamool Congress leaders accepting bribes from Mathew Samuel propped up. To evaluate whether or not the video taken in Mathew’s cell was genuine, Apple was requested to offer the Indian authorities with the password of Mathew’s cell. Apple denied the request and subsequently, authorities needed to take the assistance of a contract hacker to interrupt into the iPhone.
It’s being professed that in the course of the third world warfare, the strengthof hackers will likely be extra devastating than the nuclear bombs.The software program which will likely be used to conduct the warfare or the one which will likely be used to launch the nuclear weapons on the finish of the day stay vulnerable to human manipulation. If hackers grow to be profitable in infiltrating this software program, successful warfare will grow to be a distant dream for the nation which is a sufferer of hacking. Already, international locations are accusing different international locations of disrupting their web connection. It’s believed that as many as 600 thousand Fb accounts are getting hacked every single day. Apple units are thought of fairly protected as a result of their sturdy safety system. However even Apple’s safety methods have been discovered to have Achilles heels that are found by freelancers making an attempt for the bounty declared by Apple itself. SWIFT’s safety system is no doubt state-of-the-art, however the hackers intruding into the SWIFT system are additionally extremely expert programmers and shouldn’t be underestimated.
Zeauddin Ahmed is a former Govt Director of Bangladesh Financial institution and former Managing Director of Safety Printing Company.
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