No breakthrough yet in CUB cyberattack case

“We have registered a case based on the complaint from the bank’s legal team. Investigation is going on,” an officer attached to the Chennai City Crime Branch said. 

Though Pune police claimed that four of the seven suspects they had arrested in connection with Cosmo Bank fraud in that city were part of the CUB cyberattack in December 2017, the police here said there were yet to get details of the confession from Pune police. 

The hackers had installed a malicious software which compromised the digital network work of the CUB and allowed bypassing Core Banking System (CBS) when cash dispensation request from ATMs are generated. Usually an ATM request would be allowed by CBS only if there is enough money in the account. But the malware help bypass the CBS, enabling the criminals to withdraw money even if there was not enough money in the account. 

Hundreds of such requests were generated by people who are part of the hackers’ network, and money withdrawal were carried out in stipulated hours from different places in different countries in a day as planned earlier. Within few hours nearly Rs 34 crore vanished from the bank.