Malaysia central bank foils unauthorised fund transfers

Malaysia’s central bank said on Thursday it had detected and foiled an attempted cyber-attack and efforts to transfer funds without authorisation using falsified SWIFT messages.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) did not suffer any financial loss in the incident, which occurred on Tuesday, it said in a statement.

The bank did not say in the statement if the messages came via the SWIFT global payments network and did not immediately respond to requests for more details on the falsified messages.

“All unauthorised transactions were stopped through prompt action in strong collaboration with SWIFT, other central banks and financial institutions,” BNM said.

The attempt at BNM is the latest in a series of cyber-attacks on financial institutions.

Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the New York Fed in February 2016, using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. In February, the Russian central bank said unknown hackers stole 339.5 million roubles from a Russian bank last year in an attack using the SWIFT system.

The Malaysian central bank said there was no disruption to other payment and settlement systems the central bank operates, and that it has taken additional safeguards to protect its stakeholders.

The bank said it is conducting an investigation in collaboration with local and international law enforcement agencies.