Rs 143 crore siphoned from State Bank of Mauritius in third incident of cyber fraud in India; tech experts help police with probe

The State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) had lost Rs 143 crore to cyber fraud that was reported by the bank to Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on 2 October. However, the bank later on Friday said it has recovered around 90 per cent of the amount that was lost. “Based on proactive and prompt measures, we have managed to recover around 90 percent of the lost amount. As of today, the lost amount is limited to Rs 19 crore,” the SBM India said. CNN-News18 on Friday reported that the money was transferred out of SBM and deposited in various accounts of different banks abroad. This the third such incident to hit Indian banks in almost a year. According to reports, the modus operandi of the fraud committed against SBM is similar to the fraud reported in City Union Bank’s Chennai branch and Pune’s Cosmos Bank. In August, Cosmos Bank lost Rs 94 crore. Earlier in February, Rs 34 crore were siphoned from City Union Bank’s branch.

#BREAKING – Hackers siphon off ₹143 crore from State Bank of Mauritius. The incident took place at the bank’s Nariman Point branch in Mumbai. | @c_mangure with more details pic.twitter.com/b8OWsaD4jp

— News18 (@CNNnews18) October 12, 2018

Mumbai Mirror reported that the bank in-charge, Prakash Narayan, didn’t comment on the incident. An EOW senior officer also said that an FIR was filed and cyber experts were helping in the probe. “At this stage we don’t know if it’s a malware attack. The bank’s internal investigation is also on to ascertain whether an insider had helped the fraudsters,” the officer said. On 3 October, in a statement , SBM Holdings (SBMH) said that no loss has been caused to customers and the Indian business operations would continue as normal. “The SBM Group remains well capitalized and has sufficient liquidity to continue to finance its future plans,” the company said. SBM said that an internal inquiry had been initiated, with the Indian operations carrying out a full cybersecurity review. Recovery efforts are being pursued and SBM expects to recover a significant portion of the stolen sum. According to the statement, an internal inquiry has been initiated and the matter reported to the relevant authorities for investigation. The SBM Group remains well capitalised and has sufficient liquidity to continue to finance its future plans, it added. With inputs from agencies