Pune’s Cosmos Cooperative Bank Loses INR 94 Crore in Malware Attack

The cooperative bank Cosmos based in Pune encountered a hacker's attack losing more than INR 94 crore in fraudulent transactions whereby the money was moved out into offshore bank accounts. Officials at Cosmos therefore lodged an FIR with Pune's Chatushrungi police station.

Bank officials through the complaint stated they doubted certain malware assault targeted an automatic teller machine switch operational at Pune's Ganeshkhind Road-situated headquarters of the bank. According to them, an initial transfer of INR 80.5 crore into an offshore bank through 14,849 fraudulent dealings had occurred involving a debit card, while one more deceptive transfer of INR 13.9 crore occurred via one SWIFT transaction.

August 11 and August 13 were the dates when the fraudulent dealings occurred via 25 ATMs situated inside Hong Kong, Canada along with some inside India. Account holders with Cosmos suffered from their Rupay and Visa cards getting cloned.

The card particulars had been utilized for carrying out some 12,000 transactions valuing INR 78 crore outside the country. Likewise, some 2,800 transactions had been executed inside India wherein INR 80 lakh got swindled. One more fraudulent deal aided in transfer of money outside the country to the Hong Kong located Hanseng Bank. The deal got reflected in ALM Trading Limited a company's name and the beneficiary got a sum of INR 12 crore. Overall, INR 94 crore of money was stolen. Indiatoday.in posted this, August 14, 2018.

Fortunately, CBS or core banking system of Cosmos escaped the attack, while the malware assault hit the switch pertaining to the debit cards Rupay's and Visa's payment gateways. The officials stated that no customer account was compromised while the theft primarily affected the bank.

Police have registered the complaint that charged ALM Trading Limited along with some unidentified individuals within Pune. The FIR alleged innumerable debit card information being lost to suspected cyber-criminals who apparently executed the malware assault.

As accords to the bank's chief officers, one press conference is being arranged for August 14 regarding the problem. Amongst the most ancient cooperative banking institutions within India, the Cosmos Cooperative Bank was started during the year 1906.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/22/2018