Hackers steal Rs 94 crore from accounts of Cosmos Bank PUNE: Pune-based Cosmos cooperative bank, which ranks among the city's oldest urban cooperative banks, has become the latest victim of the cyber fraudsters as hackers infiltrated into the bank's system and siphoned Rs 94 crore between August 11 and August 13.Suhas Gokhale, an official from the bank's head office on the Ganeshkhind road here, has lodged a complaint with the Chatushrungi police on Monday night after the fraud came to light.The complaint stated that on August 11, unidentified hackers stole information of the bank's VISA and Rupay card customers through malware attack on it's ATM (switch) server and siphoned Rs 80 crore through 14,849 transactions. "Of these, 12,000 transactions were made through VISA cards and Rs 78 crore were transferred out of the country while Rs 2 crore were transferred through Rupay card within the country with 2,849 transactions," said an officer from Chatushrungi police.The officer said, "On August 13, the hackers transferred Rs 13.94 crore to an account in a Hong Kong-based bank by initiating swift transaction system of the Cosmos Bank . The bank has lost Rs 94 crore within two days. We have registered the offence under the Information and Technology Act and are investigating. "Hackers cloned several thousand cards of different account holders of the Cosmos Bank and shaved off the reported amount.According to a bank official, preliminary probe shows that the hacking activity seems to have originated from Canada. "We have filed a complaint and are also taking help from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the RBI to see what can be done," said Krishnakumar Goyal, a director of the co-operative bank.He added that no customers were affected and the bank has been put to a loss because the money was withdrawn from a pool account.He said the hackers designed a "parallel system," to the NPCI system and self-approved those transactions. According to him, the bank has shut down the servers and put a block on its internet banking transactions.Goyal added that most of these customer accounts did not even have the requisite balance that was withdrawn from each account.<doc-sep>More than Rs 94 crore was allegedly siphoned off from Pune-based Cosmos Bank after one of its servers was hacked, according to a report by The Indian Express. The money was allegedly transferred to bank accounts outside the country, and bank officials have filed a FIR (first incident report) at the Chatushrungi police station in Pune. Officials reportedly suspect a malware attack on the ATM switch located at the bank's headquarters on Ganeshkhind Road. They said that around Rs 80.5 crore was initially transferred to a bank outside India through as many as 14,849 debit card transactions. Following this, another Rs 13.9 crore was transferred in a SWIFT transaction. The FIR states that the money transfers took place on August 11 and August 13, respectively. A team of officers from Pune's cyber-crime cell and the local police station have launched an investigation into the case. In addition to the stolen funds, information of thousands of debit cards got stolen by the hackers during the malware attack. Top officials of Cosmos Bank, one of the oldest co-operative banks in India (established 1906), said that a press conference will be held later in the day to discuss the matter.<doc-sep>A multinational hacking ring allegedly stole Rs 94 crore from the Pune-headquartered Cosmos Bank on August 11 and 13, mainly by gaining access to the bank’s systems. The sophisticated attack seems to have involved a malware attack on the bank’s ATM server to gain credit and debit card details of customers; the approval of unauthorised transactions using these cards, often in excess of the amounts available for withdrawal in these accounts; and a SWIFT (a sort of money telegram between banks) transaction, again unauthorised, on the bank. Cosmos Bank chairman Milind Kale described the cyber crime as an attack on the Indian banking industry from multinational cyber criminals operating from 22 nations. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, he said none of the fraudulent transactions have been debited to any of the customer’s accounts. The Pune police commissioner K Venkatesham said experts from the Mumbai police and the local cyber crime investigation team have initiated investigations.“We have sought more details, especially technical details of logs from the bank. We are in constant touch with our headquarters and briefing them about the case ,” he said. An FIR was lodged against unidentified persons by a bank executive Suhas Subhash Gokhale (53) under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 379 (theft), 420 (cheating),120 (B) (conspiracy) and 34 and sections 43,65,66 (C) and 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act at Chatushringi Police Station on Monday night. The attack may have originated from Canada, where many of the transactions were conducted, according to bank officials who asked not to be identified. The FIR stated that during the malware attack, a proxy switch was created and all payment approvals were passed by the proxy switching system. In the first attack on August 11, using stolen card details, approximately Rs 78 crore was withdrawn in transactions in 28 countries. This included around 12,000 Visa card transactions. On the same day, approximately, Rs 2.5 crore was withdrawn through 2,800 debit card transactions in India at various locations. On August 13, the hackers transferred Rs 13.94 crore into an account in the Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong by initiating a SWIFT transaction. The bank has appointed a professional forensic agency to investigate the malware attack.The details of the exact amounts siphoned off during the attack will also be ascertained. Kale said that the bank has obtained forensic information which shows minute-by-minute record of logs of the transactions which took place around the world. The incident came to light on August 11, Saturday, when unusual, repeated transactions were taking place through ATM Visa and Rupay cards for nearly two hours. As soon as the suspicious transactions were reported, the bank immediately shut down its Visa and Rupay Debit card payment system. The bank has described the cyber fraud as “a malware attack on the switch which is operative for the payment gateway of VISA and Rupay Debit Card and not on the core banking system of the bank”. Still, the extent of the hack will become clear only after the forensic investigation is complete. Kale said savings, term deposits and recurring accounts of depositors are totally safe and also claimed the bank had met every safety requirement of the Reserve bank of India. The bank has appealed to its customers to remain calm and not to panic and continue to repose faith and trust on the 112 year old bank.<doc-sep>Pune-based Cosmos Bank was hit by a cyber attack in which miscreants allegedly hacked the server of a cooperative bank and transferred over Rs 94 crore to accounts in a foreign country. In a complaint, which was filed at the Chatushrungi police station in Pune, the bank officials stated that they suspect a malware attack on the ATM switch server located at the bank's headquarters. According to the bank, the accused hacked into the ATM switch server and stole the details of multiple Visa and Rupay debit card owners. These details were used to carry out around 12,000 transactions out of India in which around Rs 78 crore were stolen. Similarly 2,800 transactions were carried out within the country and Rs 80 lakhs were stolen. In another transaction, money was sent to Hanseng Bank in Hong Kong in name of a company named ALM Trading Limited. This beneficiary received around Rs 12 crore so the total amount lost is around Rs 94 crore. The top officials of the bank are expected to hold a press conference to explain the developments. Established in 1906, the Cosmos Bank is one of the oldest cooperative banks in India.<doc-sep>
The FIR also states that the money transfer has taken place on two occasions on Saturday last week (August 11) and once on Monday. (Representational photo) The FIR also states that the money transfer has taken place on two occasions on Saturday last week (August 11) and once on Monday. (Representational photo) In a suspected case of cyber attack, a server at Pune-headquartered Cosmos Bank was hacked and over Rs 94 crore allegedly transferred to bank accounts outside the country. The officials of the cooperative bank have filed a complaint at the Chatushrungi police station in Pune in this regard, In the FIR, the bank officials have stated that they suspect a malware attack on the ATM switch located at the bank’s headquarters on Ganeshkhind Road in the city. They further said that Rs 80.5 crore were initially transferred to a foreign bank in 14,849 transactions of the debit card, and another Rs 13.9 crore transferred in a SWIFT transaction. The FIR also states that the money transfer took place on two occasions last week — on August 11 and August 13. A team from the local police station and the cyber crime cell of Pune police have launched an investigation in the case. According to the complaint, information of thousands of debit cards have been stolen by suspected cybercriminals in the malware attack. The top officials of the bank said a press conference will be held during the day about the issue. The Cosmos Bank, which is one of the oldest cooperative banks in India, was established in 1906.