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Investigators are examining possible computer breaches at as many as 12 banks linked to SWIFT’s global payments network that have irregularities similar to those in the theft of million from the Bangladesh central bank, according to a person familiar with the probe.
Swift is a platform used by more than 11,000 financial institutions to exchange messages that contain money transference orders.
The ongoing saga SWIFT’s security breach has expanded exponentially today, after an attempted $1 billion heist has cast light on upwards of twelve other banks all presently utilizing SWIFT’s system and network.
There have been at least four known cyber attacks against a bank involving fraudulent messages on the SWIFT payments network, one dating back to 2013.
According to Symantec, the same malware was used against the bank in the Philippines.
Swift has warned publicly that the attacks are part of a broad coordinated assault on banks, though it has not assigned blame. The themes of the messages used in the attacks are related to IT infrastructure, such as a log of Server Status Report or a list of Cisco Iron Port Appliance details.
FireEye, the security firm hired by the Bangladesh bank, has been contacted by the other banks, most of which are in Southeast Asia, because of signs that hackers may have breached their networks, the person said.
“Symantec believes distinctive code shared between families and the fact that Backdoor.Contopee was being used in limited targeted attacks against financial institutions in the region, means these tools can be attributed to the same group”, it explained. Cybersecurity firm Novetta carefully documented how “Lazarus” hacked Sony Pictures in 2014, stealing data and destroying computers at the Hollywood movie studio. The code, Symantec said, has also been linked to 2014 hack of Sony Pictures’s emails.
In the Bangladesh cyberheist, the Federal Reserve Bank of NY was tricked by fake SWIFT messages into wiring money – funds that it held for the poverty-stricken country – to hacker-dominated accounts resting in the Philippines.
Last week, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga expressed worries about the financial sector’s point of weakness: smaller banks. All the attacks feature the same strategy, with the use of valid credentials stolen from the Bank’s workers, the attackers managed to validate operations in the Swift network.
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“The threat actors appear to be performing initial reconnaissance against would-be targets and were detected since they were using unique scripts not commonly seen in crimeware campaigns”, it said.
