SWIFT Hack: Bangladesh Bank Recovers $15 Million from a Philippines Casino
Nov 10, 2016
Part of the $81 Million stolen from Bangladesh bank's New York Federal Reserve account earlier this year in the wake of the major malware attack on the SWIFT interbank transfer network has been tracked down to a casino in the Philippines. SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication, is a global financial messaging system that thousands of banks and organizations around the world use to transfer billions of dollars every day. In February, hackers dropped a piece of malware on a SWIFT terminal employed by Bangladesh's central bank, obtained credentials needed for payment transfers from the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and then transferred large amount to fraudulent accounts based in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. In March, the investigation revealed that the stolen money was then sold to a black market foreign exchange broker and later transferred to at least 3 local casinos in the Philippines. In September, Philippine court ordered the return of $1...