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- Hackers gain access to Bangladesh's Central Bank computer network. - Over months they quietly observe user activity and credentials, incrementally escalating
by thinkloop 8y ago
- Hackers gain access to Bangladesh's Central Bank computer network.
- Over months they quietly observe user activity and credentials, incrementally escalating their privelages until they gain access to a connected SWIFT server
- The attackers wait for the optimal weekend, which included a national holiday, so that central bankers would be least available and able to communicate.
- On that weekend the attackers send a series of wires from Bangladesh, to NY, to the Philippines, totalling near $1b
- The attackers cover their tracks by deleting digital records on the
Bangladeshi systems and interfering with their printers
- When the money arrives in the Philippines it is laundered through a complex system of casinos involving Macau and North Korea
- In the end "only" $81m was stolen, rather than $1b, because one of the wires referenced an organization with the word "Jupiter" in its name, which by dumb luck happened to be a word on an international blacklist due to a completely unrelated company with a similar name that broke Iran sanctions, triggering an investigation.
The main weakness seems to be that the Philippines does not enforce proper kyc/aml and is therefore a haven for laundering - otherwise it would be difficult to get the money to an actual human, even if SWIFT was coerced into sending invalid transactions.
- yesforwhat 8y agoThank you for this
- chatmasta 8y ago> one of the wires referenced an organization with the word "Jupiter" in its name, which by dumb luck happened to be a word on an international blacklist Really makes you think about what you should name your company! Imagine trying to start a Venmo competitor called "Jupiter Pay" and discovering mid-launch that all your payments are delayed due to an opaque process. Sounds a lot like the problems people have when they share a name with some terrorist and try to board a plane.
- frockington 8y agoOr, for the reverse use case, you could start a company with a blacklisted name and get it white listed for your use case. Use that company for money laundering and flags maybe skipped over and attributed to the company name
- jaclaz 8y agoAnd check the spelling ;-). Another article at the time mentioned a mis-spelling of "Foundation" casually noticed by a Deutsche Bank employer: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/10/spelling-mistake-prevented-bank-heist https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/10/spelling-mi... Besides the "Jupiter" name-collision: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cyber-heist-federal/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cyber-he...