The server of Pune-based Cosmos Bank was hacked, and over Rs 94cr ( approx $13,658,200 ) was transferred to accounts in India and the foreign country
The server of Pune-based Cosmos Bank was hacked, and over Rs 94cr ( approx $13,658,200 ) was transferred to accounts in India and outside the country. Cosmos Bank, which is the second largest cooperative bank in the country has filed a complaint at Pune police saying that their servers were hacked on August 11 and 13. The first attack happened on August 11 between 3 pm and 10 pm in which attackers carried out 15,000 transactions in which Rs 80.5 crore were transferred to a foreign account. Similarly, a transaction of Rs 2.5 crore was done in India through National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and VISA. In the second attack on August 13 around Rs, 14 crores was transferred through Swift transaction to the account of ALM trading limited at Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong. According to the complaint registered bank official suspects a malware attack on the ATM switch server which is the operative for the payment gateway of VISA/RuPay debit cards located at the bank's headquarters. The complaint also added that hackers also stole information of thousands of debit cards from the bank. "The core banking system (CBS) of the bank receives debit card payment requests via 'switching system'. During the malware attack, a proxy switch was created and all the fraudulent payment approvals were passed by the proxy switching system," said in the statement. According to bank officials, the fraudulent transactions were carried out through 25 ATMs located in Canada, Hong Kong and a few in India. The bank official said that the customers' accounts will not be affected by the attack because the malware attack was on the switch server and the core banking system (CBS) is not affected by the attack. The bank is currently investigating the issue with the help of law and enforcement authorities and cybersecurity experts.
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