North Korean hackers behind Cosmos Bank’s Rs 94 crores online robbery – UN report

Npnews24 Online: Pune – A report commissioned by the United Nations security council (UNSC) has alleged that North Korean hackers were behind the loot of Rs 94 crores from Cosmos Bank through cyber attacks last year.

Pune police have arrested 12 persons in the case till now but all of them are people who had withdrawn money from ATMs using cloned cards. The officials said that they are yet to get the UN report.

In a major security breach at Cosmos Bank, unidentified persons hacked it’s server and transferred Rs 94.42 crores and withdrawn them. Bank officials said there was malware attack.

The Bank has lodged complaint against unidentified persons and ALM Trading Limited, Hong Kong as Rs 13.92 crores was transferred to their account with Hong Kong Bank in Hong Kong.

According to police, the ATM switch (server) located at Cosmos Bank head office on Ganeshkhind road was hacked between 3 pm to 10 pm on August 11. The hackers had stolen information of Visa and RuPay debit cardholders. In 12,000 transactions of Visa card they transferred Rs 78 crores out of India. Similarly, in 2849 transactions of RuPay card holders, Rs 2.5 crores was transferred within India.

Again on August 13 around 11.30 am, Rs 13.92 crores were transferred to ALM Trading Limited account in Hong Kong bank through SWIFT transaction.

The hackers had withdrawn all money transferred from Cosmos Bank. Based on complaint from bank official Suhas Gokhale (53), an FIR has been registered with Chatushrungi police station against unidentified persons and ALM Trading for offences under sections 420 (cheating), 379 (theft), 120b (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Information Technology (IT) Act.