BB issues alert of possible cyber attack

Bangladesh Bank has issued an alert to all banks about any possible cyber attack in their systems, reports UNB.

In a circular sent to chief executives of all banks on Thursday, the central bank mentioned that it was reported in the media that a huge amount of money was hacked from different banks in a neighbouring country by cyber hackers.

The cyber hackers took away the money by hacking the payment systems from inside and outside of the country, said the Bangladesh Bank.

Bangladesh has been under threat of such cyber attack as a country of rising economy, it added.

In such a situation, the central bank asked the banks to follow its instructions sent before to prevent such attacks.

Hackers siphoned off more than Rs 940 million  by hacking into the switch server of Pune-based Cosmos Bank by cloning Visa and RuPay debit cards between 11 August and 13 August.

It may be mentioned that cyber criminals hacked $101 million from Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February 2016.

However, of this $81 million was taken away by the hackers through Philippines RCBC Bank while $20 million was blocked in Sri Lanka.

So far $15 million was recovered by the central bank while legal process is being pursued to recover the remaining money.