The Bangladesh Bank has warned all commercial banks in the country of possible cyber attack by hackers and asked them to ratchet up their security measures just as the country enters into its Eid holidays.
In a press statement late on Thursday, the central bank's Payment Systems Department cited recent hacking in banks in the neighbouring country. A cyber security incident involving attempted unauthorised fund transfers using falsified Swift messages."
"Bangladesh, as an emerging economy, also faces the threat of cyber attacks. In these circumstances, banks' technological security will need to fortify to avoid possible cyber attack," reads the letter.
The plot is reminiscent of the $1-billion (Bt31 billion) hack on the Bangladesh Bank in 2016, of which $81 million found its way into the Philippine financial system.
He noted parallels in the modus operandi of the foiled hack attempt on the Bank Negara a few weeks ago and the successful one on the Bangladeshi central bank two years back.
"Hackers tend to take advantage of long holidays anywhere in the world, similar to the timing when they hit Bangladesh Bank," he said, referring to the original incident in 2016, which was hit just ahead of a three-day Chinese New Year weekend.
Back then, investigators noted that hackers - now widely suspected to be acting on behalf of North Korea - used the long weekend, when bank transactions are processed with less scrutiny, to move the stolen Bangladeshi funds to the accounts with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
On Wednesday (August 15), the telecoms and ICT Ministry fears that Bangladesh Bank may come under another big cyber-attack and they have already warned the central bank.
The concern was voiced in a letter written by ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar to Senior Secretary of the Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance.
The letter sent to the Finance Division underlined that the cyber security team, formed to safeguard important government information, has found malwares in the central bank's computer system.
As per the letter, these malwares are transferring information from the bank to cyber criminals in Kazakhstan, China, Japan and Romania. The letter further warned that unless preventive measures are taken, there may soon be a disaster.
Bangladesh Bank spokesperson and Executive Director, Sirajul Islam, told the media, "After the reserve heist, SWIFT connections from all bank computers have been disconnected so, even if there's malware, criminals won't be able to cause any further harm."
Previously, Dr Atiur Rahman said, "The heist took place as there was a lack of proper knowledge about cyber security."
Following the 2016 mammoth cyber scandal concerning reserves of Bangladesh Bank, Dr Atiur Rahman resigned from the post of governor of the central bank.
