The breach happened between August 11 and 13, with bank officials finding out about it on the last day and lodging a complaint
Customers crowd outside the Dadar branch of Cosmos Bank on coming to know about the incident
A major security breach has rattled the Pune branch of Cosmos Bank, after unidentified person/s hacked its server and transferred Rs 94.42 crore to different accounts, later withdrawing the cash in Hong Kong. The breach happened between August 11 and 13, with bank officials finding out about it on the last day and lodging a complaint.
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After Punekars panicked on not being able to withdraw cash from ATMs, the bank clarified that ATMs would remain closed for two days, but account holders were not to worry about their money, as it was intact.
As a precaution, the bank has decided to keep ATMs out of service for two days. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar
According to the bank officials, it was a malware attack on their system. The incident became public after Cosmos Bank managing director Suhas Gokhale, 53, lodged a complaint with the Chaturshringi police against unidentified person/s and Asset and Liabilities (ALM) Trading Limited, Hong Kong, as Rs 13.92 crore was transferred into the latter's account in Hong Kong Bank, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology (IT) Act.
Gokhale, who has been associated with the bank for 35 years, came to know about it when administrative officials informed him about some suspicious transactions made with a Visa debit card.
Chairman of the bank, Milind Kale, said, "We have preliminary information that the system was attacked from somewhere in Canada. An unknown person did payment via ATM through the banking payment settlement system using the bogus debit card. Account holders, however, need not worry; they won't face any loss."
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Sub-inspector Vijay Koli of Chaturhsringi police station said, "The ATM switch (server) located at Cosmos Bank's head office on Ganeshkhind road was hacked between 3 pm and 10 pm on Saturday. On Sunday, after scrunitising previous day's data, it was found that some hackers had stolen information of Visa and RuPay debit cardholders."
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