The $80m cyber security breach that hit the Central Bank of Bangladesh in February is blamed on non-existent IT security.
According to investigators, firewalls had not even been installed by the bank and second-hand switches bought for $10 were used to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payments system. The Central Bank of Bangladesh was breached in February when attackers broke into its systems and set up a series of fraudulent transfers totalling $951m to accounts controlled by the fraudsters.
However, a glaring spelling mistake in one of the payments by Deutsche Bank, one of the correspondent banks involved in the transfer, led to the transfers being stopped after $101m had been transferred, with only $20m traced and returned.
The security breach arguably makes it one of the top 10 biggest cyber security blunders of all time – even if the thieves got away with “only” $81m and not the $951m they had been trying to steal.
