Money stolen from Pune bank by hackers - Fusion - WeRIndia

Not many outside the state of Maharashtra have heard of the century-old Cosmos Bank. However, some hackers seem to have heard of it. These hackers targeted the Pune-headquartered cooperative bank in a multi-pronged attack.

This attack attempted to transfer ₹94 crore to foreign bank accounts over several days. According to payment experts, the hackers’ fraud involved breaching the firewall in servers that authorize transactions in ATMs.

After the hackers breached this firewall, they created a proxy server and authorized transactions through this fake server. This meant that the ATMs were releasing money without making sure that there was a bank account or that the cards were genuine.

The hackers’ first attack took place on August 11th. This attack is thought to have targeted the ATM Switch and Cosmos Bank’s debit cards.

The ATM Switch allows people to withdraw cash from their bank accounts and change card pins of their bank accounts at a different bank’s ATM.

The second attack took place on August 13th. The hackers targeted SWIFT, another payment system that banks use. SWIFT validates the international transfer of money. In this attack, they transferred ₹13.94 crore from Cosmos Bank to an account in a Hong Kong bank.

At the local police station, Cosmos Bank registered a FIR (First Information Report). They have said that the preliminary probe shows that the attack on their bank originated in Canada.

However, they have said that these were not amateur hackers. Therefore, they are not likely to leave a trace. After Cosmos Bank noticed these erratic, unusually-high transactions, they turned off the bank’s servers.

Cosmos Bank reassured its customers that their money is safe in their accounts. Once the bank’s systems are restored in a few days, customers will be able to access their accounts through digital means and ATMs.

In the meantime, Cosmos Bank has made provisions through its branches for NEFT and RTGS payments.

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