Cybersecurity
How a $1.8 Billion Indian Bank Fraud Lasted Seven Years
- India’s Reserve Bank issued reminder after Bangladesh heist
- ‘Critical’ to integrate bank systems with Swift, Deloitte says
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The story of how India’s biggest bank fraud went undetected for seven years includes an $81 million cyber-heist in neighboring Bangladesh, penny-pinching lenders and a series of missed opportunities.
In 2016, after revelations that hackers had infiltrated the Bangladeshi central bank’s computer systems to siphon off money, its counterpart in India sensed a danger to its own banking system. The Reserve Bank of India reminded all the country’s lenders to ensure their computer networks were properly integrated with Swift, the global system used to transmit payment instructions in the Bangladesh theft.