Faulty printer and software led to theft of US$81 million from Bangladesh Bank
Because of a printer and software problem, it took the Bangladesh central bank nearly four days to ask banks across the globe to halt payments to the hackers
A printer fault at Bangladesh’s central bank meant that overseas queries about suspicious transactions went unanswered, according to a report seen on Wednesday on the US$81 million cyber heist that sent shockwaves through the banking world.
The report, filed to police on Tuesday, recounts the events leading to the discovery of the dramatic theft from an overseas account of Bangladesh Bank.
It says that because of a printer and software problem, it took the Bangladesh central bank nearly four days to ask banks across the globe to halt payments to the hackers.
They tried to steal around US$1 billion and got away with US$81 million from the impoverished country’s coffers.
Central bank governor Atiur Rahman and two of the deputy governors have lost their jobs over the scandal, which has hugely embarrassed the government and raised alarm over the security of the country’s foreign exchange reserves of over US$27 billion.
On Wednesday the government, which has said it was kept in the dark about the losses for weeks, also removed its most senior banking official M. Aslam Alam from his position.