THE SWIFT messaging system plans to ask banks to make sure they are following recommended security practices following an unprecedented cyber attack on Bangladesh’s central bank that yielded US$81 million, a spokeswoman for the group said yesterday.

    Brussels-based SWIFT, a cooperative owned by some 3,000 global financial institutions, will issue a written advisory asking banks to review internal security, the spokeswoman said.

    SWIFT staff will also begin calling banks to highlight the importance of reviewing security measures after the attack in Bangladesh, she added.

    “Our priority at this time is to encourage customers to review and, where necessary, to reinforce their local operating environments,” the spokeswoman added.

    Unknown hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank and in early February attempted to steal US$951 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which it uses for international settlements. Some attempted transfers were blocked, but US$81 million was transferred to accounts in the Philippines in one of the largest cyber heists in history.

    SWIFT has so far said little about the attack, except that it was related to “an internal operational issue” at Bangladesh Bank and that there was no compromise in its core messaging system.

    SWIFT prepared a summary of previously issued recommendations for implementing security measures to thwart hackers, which advises members to pay close attention to best practices, the spokeswoman added.

    While SWIFT can advise members to follow certain minimum security standards, there is no organization with regulatory oversight of how central banks and other financial institutions secure their networks, said independent security consultant Shane Shook.

    That means that security is not uniform among central banks, making some more vulnerable to cyber attacks, said Shook, who has helped investigate some of the biggest financial breaches.

    A confidential interim report on the investigation, which forensics experts submitted to the bank Wednesday, said that attackers took control of the bank’s network, stole credentials for sending SWIFT messages and used “sophisticated” malicious software to attack the computers it uses to process and authorize transactions. (SD-Agencies)