Major Malta bank suspends operations after cyber attack alert

guest · Feb 13, 2019

Major Malta bank suspends operations after cyber attack alert
February 13, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ations-after-cyber-attack-alert-idUSKCN1Q21KZ

Bank of Valletta, which accounts for almost half of Malta’s banking transactions, shut down all of its operations on Wednesday after detecting a cyber attack, the company said.

The bank said it had closed its branches and ATMs on the small Mediterranean island after realizing hackers were trying to access its systems. Its website was also offline.
The bank reassured customers that their accounts and funds were “in no way impacted or compromised” and that it was working to resume normal services as soon as possible.

Maltese banks have in the past reported cyber attacks but this was the first time that a bank had shut down all of its operations as a result.
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Minimalist · Feb 15, 2019

Malta’s leading bank resumes operations after cyberheist-induced shutdown

Things are going back to normal for Bank of Valetta (BOV) and its customers following a cyberattack that caused Malta’s largest bank to take the unprecedented step of temporarily shutting down all its services.
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https://www.welivesecurity.com/2019...sumes-operations-cyberheist-induced-shutdown/

guest · May 10, 2019

Bank of Valletta recovers €10m stolen by hackers, police abroad establish source of attack
May 9, 2019
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articl...olen-by-hackers-police-abroad-find-who.709547

Bank of Valletta has recovered €10 million of the €13 million stolen by hackers in February and it expects to recover most of the remainder, the bank's chairman has revealed.
Deo Scerri also told TVM that the bank was earlier this week informed by police abroad that they had established who had carried out the cyber attack.

The source country of the perpetrators was not revealed.
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guest · Aug 11, 2019

Black-listed state believed to be behind BOV cyberattack
Just under €1 million believed to have been lost after February attack
August 11, 2019
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/v...-believed-to-be-behind-bov-cyberattack.728243

FBI experts are probing the possibility that hackers who broke into Bank of Valletta’s systems last February were working for a “black-listed state”, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.
Sources said the Malta Security Services and the state IT agency MITA were working with a team from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation after suspicions that the hack could have been part of a string of similar attacks across the world.

“Less than €1 million” would never be returned to the bank as the funds had gone offline and had likely made their way to the hacking group responsible.
The sources said the FBI experts had a number of theories about the source behind the attack.

A source said similar “phishing” – a method used to break into a computer system via electronic communication – had first been detected locally some 10 months ago. This had the same digital fingerprint as the hacking group believed to have carried out the successful heist in February.
The hackers used a hacking tool known as PowerShell Empire, which let them move around in the bank’s systems after gaining access.
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guest · Jan 31, 2020

€13 million Maltese bank cyber-heist – six men arrested in UK
January 31, 2020
https://www.grahamcluley.com/e13-million-maltese-bank-cyber-heist-six-men-arrested-in-uk/

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) have arrested a total of six men as part of an investigation into the hack of a Maltese bank in February 2019.

The Maltese Bank of Valletta (BOV) shut down all of its operations in February 2019 – closing all its branches, and disabling its cash machines, website, email, and mobile banking services – after hackers attempted to access 13 million Euros
An NCA press release describes how malware was used to access the bank’s systems and illegally move funds into accounts held in other countries. One of those accounts, according to the NCA, was in located in Belfast and received £800,000: [...]

Notably, at this stage at least, none of the arrests appear to be related to the actual hack itself and the usage of the malware which infected BOV’s systems. [...] the people writing the actual malware, for instance, may be different from those laundering the money.
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