Cyber breach: The Philippines incident is the fourth known cyberattack against a bank involving fraudulent SWIFT messages.
LA HULPE, Belgium: More than a dozen current and former board directors and senior managers of SWIFT, the bank messaging system that helps transmit billions of dollars around the world every day, have told Reuters that the organisation for years suspected there were weaknesses in the way smaller banks used its messaging terminals – but did not address such vulnerabilities.
The sources said that until February, when hackers tried to steal nearly US$1bil (RM3.99bil) by breaking into the messaging system at Bangladesh's central bank, SWIFT had not regarded the security of customer terminals as a priority. Top executives either did not receive information from member banks about specific attempts to hack the messaging network, or failed to spot those attempts themselves, the managers said.
