Cosmos Bank fraud due to malware in system: NPCI

Cosmos Bank fraud due to malware in system: NPCI

News:

1. According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the recent incident of cyber attack in Pune-based Cosmos Cooperative Bank is due to a malware attack on the bank’s system.

Important facts:

2. Hackers transferred money through the malware attack on the bank’s server by cloning debit cards of the bank’s customers.

3. The transactions were carried through automated teller machines (ATMs) in 28 countries, including Canada, Hong Kong and India.

4. Visa and Rupay debit card were cloned.

5. On failure of banks to upgrade their software in ATMs despite repeated reminders, RBI has directed them to complete the process in a phased manner by June 2019.

6. The banking regulator pointed out that many ATMs were still running on Windows XP and other unsupported software.

7. According to banking industry sources, at least 30% of the 2.2 lakh ATMs across the country could still be running on old software.

8. Suggestions to address these incidence:

• Continuous monitoring and surveillance required to prevent such attacks.
• Incidence response teams need to be deployed on standby. It will be beneficial in preventing large-scale attacks.