KATHMANDU: Chinese hackers hacked 68 ATMs in different parts of the country, a report submitted by a probe committee states.
The report submitted to the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) by a committee headed by Director of Payment Systems Department of the central bank Bam Bahadur Mishra mentioned that the hackers stole 18.9 million of 17 commercial banks of Nepal by hacking 68 ATM booths.
They used fake ATM cards of seven banks to siphon the money through a cyber-attack between Nepal Electronic Payment System (NEPS) and Visa from 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday, the report states.
The report further mentioned that the hackers also stole Rs 35.8 million of different Nepali banks through ATMs in India.
According to the report, hackers illegally withdrew the amount of six commercial banks through ATMs in India. However, how much money of which bank was siphoned has not been mentioned by the central bank.
The investigation committee has directed the banks and financial institutions to make arrangements for regularly monitoring the CCTV on Saturdays and other public holidays as well.
The five-member committee has also recommended the BFIs to make provisions to replace the ‘chip-less’ cards issued by them with the ‘chip-based’ cards within three months.
The committee has submitted its report to NRB Governor Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal on Wednesday. The report states that of the transactions carried out during that time, some were found to be real and the rest of the additional transactions are in the process of being verified, hence the amount that has been looted might be somewhat less.
The report has specified the short-term and long-term suggestions for reducing the possible risk taking into account the shortcomings seen in the payment system taking place by using cards and on the basis of the study of the hacking incident.
It has also recommended that the banks should have the incident closely studied and analyzed by forensic experts and to implement the recommendations given by them.
Likewise, the committee has suggested that directives have to be issued to the licensed banks and financial institutions, PSPs and PAOs to adopt necessary measures for minimizing the risk by evaluating their payment system made through IT and electronic system.
It has also pointed out to the need of making provision to tally the visa, master card the next day of the transaction.
Provisions have to be made henceforth that the debit and credit cards for Nepali currency issued by banks and financial institutions of Nepal should be made fit for use in carrying out the transaction by means of chip and PIN on the side of the customer and the issuing banks and financial institutions.
The committee has also suggested making arrangements for the necessary security system regarding the electronic cards as the Chinese hackers have drawn out money from ATMs of Nepali banks and financial institutions by using these cards.
Similarly, the banks and financial institutions have been suggested to adopt the required security system and make provisions for regularly monitoring the possible risks that might arise in the information technology sector.
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