Cyber thieves attempted a hack on Bangladesh central bank and tried to steal $1bn.
Reuters was told by the bank officials that the raiding gang made use of stolen credentials to request a transfer of cash in a “legitimate looking manner.”
If all the requests had gone through successfully, the gang would have stolen close to $1bn.
However, the requests were put to halt after the huge amount being requested raised questions.
It is believed that the computer hackers are the perpetuators of an $80bn hack that has remained one of the largest bank robberies.
In order for them to be able to carry out the Bangladesh bank hack that happened a month ago, the gang took some time to study the internal operations of the bank that would assist them to pose as officials and request for transfers.
However, the huge number of transaction and a spelling mistake assisted the officials to recognize the attempt.
There was a spelling mistake in the name of one of the recipients which prompted Deutsche Bank to ask for clarification from the central bank.
Legal threat
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York had alerted the Bangladesh Central Bank concerning unusual requests for money transfers. It is believed that the flagging of the transfer requests happened after it was recognized they were going to private accounts and also they were so many of them.
If all these transaction requests had gone on successfully, the thieves would have gotten away with a total of $950m.
Security and forensics firm Mandiant is also helping the Bangladeshi investigation into the theft.
