India’s City Union Bank has released a statement that their system has suffered a security breach and a total $1.8 million was transferred in three unauthorized transactions
India’s City Union Bank has released a statement that their system has suffered a security breach and a total $1.8 million was transferred in three unauthorized transactions made through SWIFT financial platform.The statement was released in response to local media reports of three unauthorized transactions were initiated by staff. According to the statement the unauthorized transaction was discovered during the reconciliation process, and transactions took place on or before February 7.“During our reconciliation process on February 7, it was found out that 3 fraudulent remittances had gone through our SWIFT system to our correspondent banks which were not initiated from our bank’s end. We immediately alerted the correspondent banks to recall the funds,” said in the statement released by City Union Bank.Of the three fraudulent transactions, the first one was made through Standard Chartered Bank, New York, to a Dubai based bank for an amount of $500,000 which was blocked and returned to the bank.The second one was made through the Standard Chartered Bank, Frankfurt to a Turkish based bank for an amount of Euro 300000 ($370,206). The fund was blocked by beneficiary’s account in the Turkish bank.The third transaction of $1 million was made through Bank of America, New York to a China-based bank.The bank said that it is working with Ministry of External Affairs and law and enforcement authorities in Turkey and China to recover the funds.“With the help of Ministry of External Affairs through Consulate General of Shanghai and Istanbul and office of the National Cyber Security Council (PMO) all possible efforts through diplomatic and legal channels are being taken to repatriate the money.”The investigation is still ongoing, and till now there is no evidence of any staff involved in the issue.The bank also said that SWIFT payment system is back in operation with adequate enhanced security.