Union Bank of India Cyberattack Eerily Similar To Bangladesh Heist

The Union Bank of India was hit by a cyberattack last July that mimicked he same attack that took place against Bangladesh central bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve last year, Reuters reported.

At the Union Bank of India, hackers were able to steal the bank’s data after an employee opened an email attachment releasing malware. The email looked as though it came from India’s central bank, but instead it initiated a type of malware that enabled hackers to steal the bank’s access codes for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

Once the codes were stolen, transfer instructions were sent to a Union Bank account at Citigroup in New York for an amount of $170 million.

While the bank was able to block the movement of funds, there’s no denying that the attack method is almost identical to what took place at Bangladesh central bank. Except in the case of the Bangladesh bank heist, hackers successfully made off with $81 million.

In the ongoing investigation into one of the biggest and more brazen bank robberies seen to date, and done digitally, The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors are “building cases” against North Korea that would point toward that nation as being behind the theft at Bangladesh central bank.