Mexican central bank confirms that hackers transferred more than $15 million from their domestic banks. The attack was detected in April and the central bank declines to reveal the banks hit with the cyber attack and how much cybercriminals money attackers pulled out in cash.
Governor of Mexican central bank Alejandro Diaz de Leon says “the electronic payments system SPEI was not directly targeted and the depositors’ money is safe. He also added it is impossible to say that all vulnerabilities had been closed”
The SPEI is a domestic payment system operated in Mexico to make electronic fund transfers, it is similar to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication(SWIFT).
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Diaz de Leon said Reuters that preliminary estimates pointed to around 300 million pesos in “irregular transactions,” but he said some of that had not been withdrawn and could still be recovered.
It still remain’s unclear on how much cash was withdrawn, but some trusted sources reported Reuters that there had been a number of withdrawals from the bank after the fraudulent transfers.
Diaz de Leon said, “We are very conscious that this has affected users, and we are sorry about that and we are taking immediate actions to recover the speed of the system with full security”.
Also, he added the Mexico central bank had a cybersecurity unit starting from 2013 and it strengthened after the 2016 Bangladesh attack.
