Hackers are a vivid threat to the whole world. Every year different banks and financial institutions are under attack and lose a great deal of money because of hacking. For this reason most of the countries across the globe have taken up strong measures to secure their cyber space and computer systems so that hackers cannot break through their digital security bulwark. Of course, this is a global challenge which needs to be addressed collectively.
Time has arrived for banks and financial organizations to be more alert to avoid cyber heists. Bangladesh Bank's former Governor Dr Atiur Rahman stepped down from the top post of the central bank upholding his self-respect in 2016 in the wake of the biggest cyber heist in the country's history as the then Finance Minister was hitting him below the belt without understanding the value of an independent central bank and the gravity of the issue of cyber security which is not like physical security. Foreign hackers first injected the malware into the global payment system run together by BB-SWFT and New York Fed and managed to away 101 million US dollars from Bangladesh Bank's reserve in February 2016 using fake payment instructions.
Twenty million USD was returned to Bangladesh from Sri Lanka following an intervention by BB as well as a spelling error in the payment instruction. Another 17 million USD was recovered from Philippines later on as there was a clear case of money-laundering by RCBC bank which ignored Stop Payment instruction sent by BB and Fed. The then Philippine Ambassador in Dhaka went public to return the full money following the strong pressure put up by BB Governor to his counterpart in Manila. Dr Rahman approved the file for launching a legal case against the RCBC bank immediately following the incident. The Philippine central bank fined a huge sum against RCBC for not being compliant as it allowed the cash withdrawal in a fake account without KYC ignoring BB's stop payment instruction. The Philippine Senate also organized a special hearing and made RCBC liable for the crime. Things were moving in favor of Bangladesh but the process was slowed down by self-inflicting statements by the FM.
Bangladesh launched a legal fight in New York against Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in February 2019 to recover the full sum of the money stolen from Bangladesh Bank's reserve. The legal procedure came almost three years after foreign hackers robbed 81 million dollars from a Bangladesh Bank (BB) account with the New York Federal Reserve. It should be noted that Dr Atiur Rahman played very dynamic roles for the socio-economic growth of Bangladesh. He introduced school banking, ten taka bank accounts, mobile financial services and many more innovative things which expanded financial inclusion in the country. The Philippine Senate started delivering and pushed RCBC to the corner to accept the guilt and asked it to return the money. But this trail could not be continued as the then Finance Minister AMA Muhith started blaming the central bank officials without any evidence which created a confusion in the minds of the Philippine authorities to back off.
Following the cyber heist in 2016 former Finance Minister AMA Muhith blamed the top officials of Bangladesh Bank of that time though it has now been proven that foreign hackers committed this crime. AMA Muhith's offensive comments on the cyber theft deploring Bangladeshi officials caused complications and delay in the money recovery process. John Gomez, the then Bangladeshi ambassador to Philippines urged everyone at that time not to make adverse remarks on the cyber heist but AMA Muhith and his associates including former BB Governor Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin continued to speak in an uncontrolled manner. North Korean citizen Park Jin Hyok has been held responsible by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for this cyber theft. Park Jin Hyok has been charged with the cyber attacks on Sony Corporation and some other firms. FBI found the involvement of Chinese and North Korean hackers with Bangladesh Bank reserve heist while investigating cyber crimes in various countries.
FBI did not point its finger to any BB official as it was a pure hacking beyond the capacity of the central bank administration. Such hackings have taken place in Russia, Uruguay, India and many other countries. ATMs all over the world are regularly hacked. Even FBI and Pentagon documents were hacked. Nowhere except Bangladesh the associated authorities were put to such embarrassment and attacked inappropriately. By doing this the very moral strength of the central bank of Bangladesh has been weakened and the whole financial sector is now under pressure.
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