Cybersecurity
Ecuador Bank Says It Lost $12 Million in Swift 2015 Cyber Hack
- Banco del Austro made claim in U.S. suit against Wells Fargo
- Ecuador attack predates those in Vietnam and Bangladesh
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Cyber-criminals stole about $12 million from an Ecuadorean bank in a 2015 heist that bears all the hallmarks of later attacks against Bangladesh’s central bank and a small Vietnamese lender.
Banco del Austro SA said in a lawsuit filed in New York against Wells Fargo & Co. that hackers got access to the codes the bank uses to move money via Swift, the global interbank network, and used them to transfer funds from the U.S. bank. Though the attack happened more than 15 months ago, a Swift spokeswoman told Reuters that the firm had only just found out about it, suggesting banks have not been sharing details of such attacks with the cooperative. A Wells Fargo representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment.