Ryanair Airlines’ Bank Account Hit With $5M Hack

Cybercriminals aren’t just knocking the doors of next-door banks anymore, but now seem to have a found a seat at 33,000 feet.

At least so it seems with the latest cyber attack on the bank accounts of Ryanair, which just lost about $5 million in an electronic fund transfer routed through a Chinese bank last week, The Irish Times reported.

As of now, little is known about the cyber scam that came to light when the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) of Dublin was supposedly sought for help by its Asian counterpart, the Asset Recovery Interagency Network Asia Pacific, based in South Korea. The theft reportedly took a swing at the airline’s fuel money used for its more than 400 Boeing 737-800 aircrafts.

“Ryanair confirms that it has investigated a fraudulent electronic transfer via a Chinese bank last week,” the airline said in a statement. “The airline has been working with its banks and the relevant authorities and understands that the funds – less than $5 million – have now been frozen. The airline expects these funds to be repaid shortly, and has taken steps to ensure that this type of transfer cannot recur.”

Though more details are yet to emerge on the planning and execution of the theft, a recent report by Verizon, which analyzed over 80,000 security incidents, found out that 96 percent of the security breaches still fell into the nine basic patterns of cyber attack, which have been repeatedly used over several decades.