"In 2016, hackers from North Korea plotted to steal $ 1 billion from Bangladesh National Bank", Reports the BBC.
"It all started with a malfunctioning printer ... "
The printer is located in a very secure room on the 10th floor of the bank headquarters in Dhaka. His job was to print the multi-million dollar transfer records that flow in and out of the bank. When staff found that it was not working, at 08:45 on Friday, February 5, 2016, "we assumed it was a common problem like any other day," Zubair Bin Huda later told police.
"Such malfunctions have happened in the past." In fact, this was the first indication that the Bank of Bangladesh was facing many problems. The hackers had invaded her computer networks and at that time were carrying out the most daring cyber attack ever.
Their goal: to steal a billion dollars.
To obtain the money, the gang used falsebank accounts, charities, casinos and a wide network of accomplices ….
When the bank staff restarted the printer, they received some very disturbing messages.
Urgent messages were printed from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - the branch - where the Bangladesh bank maintains a US dollar account.
The Fed had been instructed, apparently by Bangladesh Bank, to empty the entire account – nearly a billion dollars. The bank tried to contact for clarification, but thanks to the very careful timing of the hackers, they were unable to get in touch with anyone. And when Bangladesh bank started revealing it theft on Saturday, it was already the weekend in New York.
But that was not enough. Hackers used another trick to buy even more time. Once they transferred the money from the Fed, they had to send it somewhere. So they sent them to accounts they had set up in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. And in 2016, Monday, February 8 was the first day of the lunar year, a national holiday throughout Asia…
They seem to have had enough time to plan all of this, because it turns out that the Lazarus Group who carried out the attack in Bangladesh, was hiding in the bank's systems for a whole year.
Once inside the bank's systems, the Lazarus Group began stealthily moving from one computer to another. looking for security loopholes that opened the doors to the digital vaults and billions of dollars they contained.
Είχαν όμως ένα τελευταίο εμπόδιο που έπρεπε να προσπεράσουν, τον εκτυπωτή στον 10ο όροφο. Η Bangladesh Bank είχε δημιουργήσει ένα εφεδρικό σύστημα για την καταγραφή όλων των μεταφορών που πραγματοποιούνται από τους λογαριασμούς της. Αυτή η καταγραφή συναλλαγών έθετε την δουλειά των hacker σε κίνδυνο. Έτσι παραβίασαν το λογισμικό του και τον έβγαλαν except operation.
At 20:36 on Thursday, February 4, 2016, hackers began making transfers - a total of 35, totaling $ 951 million, almost all of Bangladesh Bank's New York Fed account.
There are many more details about the story in a 10-episode BBC World Service podcast, which calls it "a new global battlefield: a dark link between crime, espionage and the power of the nation-state."
