With the advent of internet things have become much easier however with it also comes the danger of cyber attacks. Each day we hear multiple events and stories of online cyber threats and attacks and it is nothing new. Recently there was cyber heist at the Bangladesh Central Bank and a Philippine senator said that Chinese hackers were likely to be involved in this. This came in the light when they noted the network of Chinese people involved in the routing of stolen funds in Manila as reported by Reuters.
In this cyber heist at Bangladesh Central Bank over $951 million was stolen by some unidentified hackers and almost all attempted transfers of this cyber heist gone through the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC). As soon as this was discovered almost most of the transfers were blocked but still $81 million was able to make it to four different accounts at a single RCBC brand in Manila before it got distributed to casinos and gambling agents in the country (Manila). In a telephonic interview with Reuters Senator Ralph Rector stated that “The hacking was done, chances are, by Chinese hackers,” “Then they saw that, in the Philippines, RCBC particularly was vulnerable and sent the money over here.”
As soon as Senator Ralph Recto made this statement with Reuters on a telephonic interview Beijing was quick enough to respond back on these accusations of Chinese hackers being involved in this cyber heist and they said these acquisitions were “complete nonsense” and “really irresponsible”. This is said by the foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang during a media briefing. Lu Kang further said that “If the relevant side, no matter who they are, tries to make some accusations, they must provide some factual evidence instead of using (words like) ‘maybe, perhaps’ or making other guesses like that. This is extremely irresponsible and not at all beneficial to cyberspace cooperation in the international community,”
After this statement by Chinese officials Senator Ralph Recto said that though he couldn’t prove the hackers were Chinese at this moment in time but he was connecting the dots after a series of Senate hearings about this scandal. However this cyber heist has actually posted a big threat to many banks to ensure that they follow adequate safety regulations and audits to ensure that any such cases should not happen anymore.
