(From Reuters)
Bangladesh’s central bank has hired a lawyer in the United States for a potential lawsuit against the New York Federal Reserve after unknown hackers stole $81 million from its account with the U.S. bank, an internal report said.
In one of the largest cyber heists in history, the hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank (BB) in early February and succeeded in issuing instructions to the New York Fed to transfer $81 million to accounts in the Philippines.
The hackers also tried to move $20 million to an obscure non-profit entity based in Sri Lanka but that transaction was halted because they misspelt the recipient’s name.
The heist has prompted the resignation of Bangladesh’s central bank governor, Atiur Rahman, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now helping the country to track down the cyber crooks.
BB said in an incident report dated March 13 that it had been the subject of a sophisticated cyber-attack in which 35 payment instructions were issued to the New York Fed. Of those the U.S. bank blocked 30 while allowing the rest to go through.
“We view this as a major lapse on the part of FRB NY,” BB said in the report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Read more