Economic Highlights
New Delhi, 27 February, 2017
Global Cyber System
UNSAFE, BILLIONS LOOTED
By Shivaji Sarkar
The world cyber system is unsafe and people need to be
doubly cautious. It is not just in India, where 3.2 million (3.02 crore) debit
cards were compromised in 2016, but the US Federal Reserve suffered more than
50 cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015. The Fed records describe several incidents
as “espionage” as its computers’ systems play a critical role in global
banking, says an international agency report. At least 100 major banks across
the world have suffered such attacks and been looted of $1 billion.
The probe by a Bengaluru based firms into Indian 3.02 crore
Indian cards outsourced to Hitachi by banks and National Payments Corporation of
India (NPCI) revealed that most Indian and corporates’ anti-virus and malware
device is no match to the targeted cyber attacks. Experts says that similar
attacks can happen to any payment mode – banks, wallet firms (recently some
reported such frauds), UPI (universal payment interface) or IMPI (immediate
payment service), retailers (e-commerce or brick and mortar) or point of sale
machines (POS).
A most recent report (February 23) says even Aadhar is not
safe. Three firms are being probed for attempting unauthorised authentication
and impersonation by using Aadhar biometrics. Are we throwing Aadhar user to
the wolves?
In 2016, Standard Bank South Africa computers system was
hacked to steal rand 300 million through 100 credit card uses in Japan to
withdraw Yen 1.8 billion (rand 250 million) from ATMs in Tokyo within three
hours. At least four major banks have been infiltrated since 2016, including
Ecuador’s Banco del Austro ($12 billion stolen); Vietnam’s TP Bank ($1 million
tried to be hacked); a bank in the Philippines (cash stolen unclear); and
Bangladesh’s central bank robbed of $101 million (of which $20 million siphoned
to Sri Lanka was stated to be recovered).
The Bangladesh bank heist was conducted through its account
at the US Fed Reserve. The US authorities have linked many of these heists to
North Korea. The international system, however, is sceptical about such claims.
The hacks have exposed a flaw in the integrity of the
international banking system. It is done through what the banks say “malware’,
in reality very sophisticated software that not only gets embedded in the banks’
systems but is also stated to multiply. It spews out information to the hackers
through a complex internet system.
They mimic bank procedures and direct banks’ computers to
spew out money in a variety of ways to transfer money into hackers’ fraudulent
bank accounts using e-payment systems. They even direct ATMs to dispense money
at set times and locations, without a debit or credit card.
A Russian cyber security firm, Kaspersky Lab, investigating
a malfunctioning ATM in Ukraine found that errant machine was not the problem. The
Bank’s internal computers used by employees for transfers and book keeping had
been penetrated by malware of a criminal group of Russians, Chinese and
Europeans through e-mails. Then they transferred millions of dollars from banks
in Russia, Japan, the US and the Netherlands into dummy accounts set up in
other countries.
In India many credit card users reportedly complained of
large transactions on their cards in many western countries, which they have
never visited. The Indian police are groping with other criminals functioning
within the country and targeting credit card users through spurious phone
calls. The police, even in the national capital, Delhi, say they are clueless.
They mostly do not record FIRs but simply take a complaint. It is so as, cyber
illiteracy is high.
A study by Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) on
25 of 56 commercial banks finds the country’s banks are facing 45 to 300 cyber
attacks a day. About 60 per cent of these attacks originate from other
countries and 40 per cent from local hackers. Most of the cyber attacks remain
unreported to the regulator or law enforcement agencies.
The BIBM reports says that 27 per cent is malware attacks,
21 per cent phishing, 7 per cent pharming and another 7 per cent is botnets or
zombie attacks. Of these 23 per cent is targeted to ATM or point of sale (POS),
18 per cent did identity theft, 9 per cent for repeated attacks, 15 per cent
disrupts network, 9 per cent targets data integrity braches, 8 per cent seeks
insider access and 7 per cent is done for account takeover from the banking
systems.
The US Websense Security Lab 2015 Financial Services
Drill-Down Report examining the present state of cyber threats, said that
banking/financial sector – which includes the capital and equity markets – are
becoming more prone to cyber attacks and data theft. It stated that the
financial sector encounters security incidents 300 per cent more frequently
than other industries. It finds data software like data stealing email worm
geodo, rerdom, vawtrack, searchprotect and browsefox as the most used against
financial sectors. These steal data mostly without leaving traces.
The Indian attack on 3.02 crore known card holders, known as
Hitachi hackers, is stated to be something of a very sophisticated nature and
has reportedly been not seen in any other investigations. The attackers are
using what is called spear phishing to get valid usernames and passwords and
then use built-in capabilities of the operating systems like Windows to
complete the hack.
The Indian system so far is largely targeting detection of
malware, a kind of defence mechanism. It does not have aggressive software to
kill such malware that “gently” gets embedded through any e-system, including
the most innocuous e-mail.
Not many hackers internationally so far have been
apprehended either. India despite being an IT giant remains at a nascent stage
in this area. The Hitachi attack is stated to have been highly targeted with
high deception tactics. Its impact has yet to be assessed.
The skill to check the malware before it starts tactical
movement or “privilege escalation” has not yet been developed. It is said that
the bad guys have better information sharing than the “robust” financial
system. Experts are unanimous that if an attack has been successful in one
environment, it can be reused in the same industry.
Those votaries of digitisation need to be cautious. They
must not throw the entire globe into a crisis due to severe security lapse. The
organised banking has done more harm to the global economy since at least 1930s
than the citizens’ trusted cash system. The world needs to wait and build up
parallel system to save the common man. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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