Millions stolen from bank with insider help; Theft prompts security review

KUALA LUMPUR: The suspects linked to the siphoning of millions from a bank targeted their victims based on insider information, says Bukit Aman.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf (pic)said the group stole the money in stages after they had identified high-value account holders.

“The money was taken out via the bank counter and the first one was conducted around April. Several more were done in May and June.

“With inside help, the money was taken out according to bank procedures. The case only came to light after an account holder went to the bank to update details,” he said at a press conference yesterday. 

He said it was possible that syndicate members who were working in the bank also directly facilitated the transactions.

Among those caught included a bank manager.

Investigations showed that the mastermind had expertise in forgery and the syndicate members would use forged identifications to take money out of targeted accounts. 

“The details would be the same but the photo and thumbprints would be changed,” he said, adding that forged documents were then used to facilitate the money transfers.

Meanwhile, another case has been detected, with losses involving RM551,000.

“This was done at another bank earlier in the year and we are also investigating that case,” he said.

When contacted, Comm Ramli said 13 people, including four bank employees, were detained recently in connection with millions of ringgit that vanished.

Arrests were mostly made in Kota Kinabalu with one suspect caught in Padang Besar, Perlis.

The case is currently being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

“The involvement of bank personnel in commercial crime is a very serious matter.

“In the past, we have encountered cases where bank personnel were complicit in crimes such as criminal breach of trust or embezzlement.

“There are also those who were in cahoots with theft or scam syndicates,” he said.

Comm Ramli urged financial institutions to improve their security such as tightening procedures or imposing stricter measures in regard to withdrawal from accounts.

“Such measures are necessary to prevent theft or missing funds from customers’ bank accounts.

“We feel that improvements are needed for the sake of the account holders,” he said.

From 2022 to June 15 this year, a total of 485 cases of missing funds from bank accounts have been recorded involving RM35.01mil in losses.

“From the overall statistics, this year alone we recorded RM25.76mil in losses and 65 cases.

“The highest number was 225 cases last year, but it involved only RM4.82mil, followed by 195 cases in 2022 involving RM4.42mil,” he said.

Besides the involvement of “inside men” in financial institutions, Comm Ramli said another factor that could have contributed to the missing funds was disclosure of banking details to a third party.

“Our investigations revealed that some victims might have intentionally or unintentionally revealed details of their online banking username and password,” he said.

Comm Ramli said scammers are known for using the phishing technique to dupe victims via email or text messages.

He advised the public to stay vigilant and be wary of tactics used by scammers.

Sorce link

Related stories:

Theft prompts security review

RM24mil bank fraud: Inside men picked high-value accounts to hit, says CCID director

Theft prompts security review

d9c10f09-7654-496c-af1e-0af847d1b361

PETALING JAYA: A recent embezzlement case involving bank staff in Kota Kinabalu has sparked calls for tighter security measures in financial institutions.

Universiti Sains Malaysia criminologist Datuk Dr P. Sundramoorthy (pix) said the recent case that saw over a dozen arrested was both concerning and a wake-up call.

“Although the number of wrongdoings and criminal acts by bank employees may be very minimal, it cannot be ignored.

ALSO READ: RM24.2mil fraud: BNM requests prompt refunds to all affected account holders 

“The rakyat, investors and the business community depend on the banks to safeguard their money.

“We don’t have a choice in this matter.

“Banks must aggressively play a role in eliminating undesirable employees,” he said, adding that banks need to invest in internal security and loss prevention departments, even if it incurs costs.

“These departments should have the expertise to detect embezzlement, fraud and misconduct by employees,” he said.

“Security investments are assets, not liabilities.”

ALSO READ: Millions stolen from bank with insider help

Drawing comparison with law enforcement bodies, he added that employees at highly sensitive areas should be rotated to avoid any potential for leakages within the bank, even if they are competent in their jobs.

“This is especially important for positions with access to customer accounts,” he said.

Pre-employment screening must also be done for all employees with regular assessments for those in service, he added.

Duties must also be “robustly” segregated, with dual authorisation practices implemented as well.

“That was a substantial amount of money (lost) and I hope measures will be taken.

“Since it was an inside job, the bank must be responsible for covering every single ringgit and sen that was misappropriated.

“Banks must be proactive and they should work together with the victims and law enforcement to ensure such incidents are reported.

“Employee pilferage is not new but it is also not frequent. We must not tolerate it,” he said, adding that harsh penalties and criminal charges must be meted out on those involved.

Such cases, he said, also affects the credibility of the bank involved as customer confidence will drop.

Previously, Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said that four police reports were lodged since early June regarding suspicious transactions, with losses estimated to be around RM24.2mil.

As of June 18, the police have arrested 13 suspects aged between 22 and 52 years old.

Four suspects were found to be employees of the bank. 

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/22/theft-prompts-security-review

Related stories:

RM24.2mil fraud: BNM requests prompt refunds to all affected account holders

Related posts:

BLACK SHEEP IN BANKS, Employees you cannot bank on, Calls for banks to bolster cyberdefences

Weed out the problematic, errant, incompetent officers early

Weeding out the black sheep, Bad boys sacked

 KERATAN AKHBAR PILIHAN: WEEDING OUT THE BLACK SHEEP, BUKIT AMAN WILL NOT COMPROMISE WHEN IT COMES TO ROGUE PERSONNEL (rmp.gov.my)  

PDRM

 

KERATAN AKHBAR PILIHAN: WEEDING OUT THE BLACK SHEEP, BUKIT AMAN WILL NOT COMPROMISE WHEN IT COMES TO ROGUE PERSONNEL 

Bad boys sacked

Bukit Aman will not compromise when it comes to rogue personnel

Despite stern reminders by the top brass to stay clear of criminal activities, more than 60 officers and rank-and-file policemen have been expelled since January this year for committing crimes such as theft, drug-pushing and abduction. Bukit Aman Integrity and Standard Compliance Department director Comm Datuk Seri Azri Ahmad says the force acts promptly and does not compromise on rogue personnel.

Petaling Jaya, 5 Oktober 2023 - In just 10 weeks, almost 70 police personnel have been arrested for alleged wrongdoings in cases that were reported nationwide.

The 70 policemen were arrested in connection with six cases in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Kedah.

Among the crimes they allegedly committed were abduction, theft, drug pushing and drug abuse.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Dato’ Sri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay in a recent news report said that between January and July, 62 personnel were expelled from the force, while hundreds of others were punished with disciplinary action for various offences.

He said that last year, 154 officers and rank-and-file personnel were sacked from the 135,000 strong police force, compared to 117 in 2021.

A recent case on Sept 26 involved five policemen, including an officer-in-charge of a police station (OCS), who were arrested in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, for abduction, wrongful confinement and assault.

Director of Integrity and Standard Compliance Department, CP Dato’ Sri Azri Ahmad said, the cases of errant police personnel are not taken lightly as they could erode public confidence and put the force in a bad light.

“We always act promptly when such cases are reported, and there is no compromise. The first thing we do is remove the errant personnel from their posts and distance them from the public so they cannot continue abusing their power. An internal or criminal investigation, or both, is then carried out depending on the offence committed,” he told The Star.

Comm Azri said that apart from being charged in court, internal actions against police personnel include suspension, removal from active duty, demotion, freeze in promotion and pay cut.

Criminologist Datuk Dr P. Sundramoorthy of Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Centre for Policy Research said the rise in cases of police misconduct and power abuse over a period of just over two months is worrying.

“These are cases that went public. How many more are unreported? There should be zero tolerance for rogue cops, and those who violate the law must have stern action taken against them.

“Accountability is the key component, and the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the heads of department to weed out such bad hats. It is also high time for the government to form an independent commission to investigate such cases involving members of the police force.

“Often, people are reluctant to report any unpleasant encounter with crooked cops. When such cases are exposed, it will restore public confidence and encourage people to step up and lodge formal complaints,” he said.

The latest case occurred in Desa Petaling where five policemen, including an inspector with shady alliances with gambling den syndicates, allegedly abducted a 26-year-old man on the order of the syndicate’s leader before confining the victim at a police station.

The victim, who was the caretaker of a gambling den, was allegedly snatched from a restaurant and assaulted after his employer accused him of stealing more than RM13,000 and demanded that he repay three times the sum.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Comm Datuk Allaudeen Abdul Majid said the case took place because the suspects lacked integrity and put self-interest above their duty as policemen.

On Sept 18, four policemen, one with a previous criminal record for extortion, were arrested for aiding two suspects to steal 40m of copper cables belonging to Telekom Malaysia in Taman Kanagapuram, Petaling Jaya.

On Aug 29, 37 police personnel, including officers, were arrested in Johor by the Malaysian Anticorruption Commission for taking kickbacks and tampering with urine samples meant for testing drug abuse since 2018.

On Aug 19, 15 policemen were arrested in a raid along with two public prosecutors for misconduct after they patronised an entertainment outlet in Seremban.

On Aug 10, a 32-year-old policeman from the Seberang Perai district police headquarters was arrested for drug pushing in Sungai Petani, Kedah. He was found in possession of over five kg of syabu.

On July 8, six policemen who were arrested at an entertainment outlet in Ipoh tested positive for drug abuse. The raiding party from Bukit Aman also recovered drugs from the men.

Related posts:

Crooked cops under the spotlight; Bukit Aman CID chief pleased with public reception to his stern address to his personnel

 

King: Lies will ruin country, speak the truth, avoid slander

Slander and lies will undermine the country’s stability and harmony, says Yang di-pertuan Agong Al-sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-mustafa Billah Shah. His Majesty has called on the people to emulate the Prophet Muhammad’s noble character in speaking the truth.

Weeding out the black sheep, Bad boys sacked

Exclusive: Evidence shows US’ NSA behind attack on email system of Chinese leading aviation university

 

U.S. is True Empire of Hacking, Surveillance, Theft of Secrets

 

The US: Empire of Hacking, Surveillance and Theft of Secrets.

As a hacking empire, the US disguises itself as a hacking victim

The email system of a university in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province - well-known for its aviation, aerospace and navigation studies - was found to have been attacked by the US' National Security Agency (NSA), the Global Times learned from a source on Monday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to the issue at Monday's press briefing, saying that China has lodged a strong protest to the US over NSA's attack and demanded an explanation for it.

On June 22, Northwestern Polytechnical University announced that hackers from abroad were caught sending phishing emails with Trojan horse programs to teachers and students at the university, attempting to steal their data and personal information.

A police statement released by the Beilin Public Security Bureau in Xi'an the next day said that the attack attempted to lure teachers and students into clicking links of phishing emails with Trojan horse programs, with themes involving scientific evaluation, thesis defense and information on foreign travel, so as to obtain their email login details.

To probe into the attack, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and internet security company 360 jointly formed a technical team to conduct a comprehensive technical analysis of the case.

By extracting many trojans samples from internet terminals of Northwestern Polytechnical University, under the support of European and South Asian partners, the technical team initially identified that the cyberattack to the university was conducted by the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) (Code S32) under the Data Reconnaissance Bureau (Code S3) of the Information Department (Code S) of US' NSA.

TAO is the largest and most important part of the intelligence division of the NSA. Founded in 1998, the main responsibility of TAO is to use the internet to secretly access to insider information of its competitors, including secretly invading target countries' key information infrastructure to steal account codes, break or destroy computer security systems, monitor network traffic, invade privacy and steal sensitive data, and gain access to phone calls, emails, network communications and messages.

The various departments of TAO are composed of more than 1,000 active military personnel, network hackers, intelligence analysts, academics, computer hardware and software designers, and electronics engineers. The entire organizational structure consists of one "center" and four "divisions."

The Global Times learned from the source that the attack was code-named "shotXXXX" by the NSA. Directly involved in the command and action mainly includes the head of TAO, remote operations center (mainly responsible for operational weapons platforms and tools to enter and control target system or network) and infrastructure task division (mainly responsible for development and build a network infrastructure and security monitoring platform for attacks)

In addition, four other divisions were also involved in the operation: the advanced/access network technology division, the data network technology division, and the telecommunications network technology division, which provided technical support, and the requirements and location division, which determined the attack strategy and intelligence assessment.

The Global Times learned from the source that at that time, TAO was headed by Rob Joyce. Born September 13, 1967, he attended Hannibal High School and graduated from Clarkson University with a bachelor's degree in 1989 and Johns Hopkins University with a master's degree in 1993. He joined the NSA in 1989 and served as Deputy Director of TAO from 2013 to 2017. He began serving as Acting US Homeland Security Advisor in October 2017. From April to May 2018, he served as the State Security Advisor to the White House, and then returned to the NSA as the Senior Advisor to the Director of Cybersecurity Strategy of the NSA. He now serves as the Director of Cybersecurity.

The investigation also found that in recent years, TAO has conducted tens of thousands malicious attacks against targets in China, controlling large numbers of network devices (web server, internet terminals, network switches, telephone switches, routers, firewalls, and etc.) to steal a high value of more than 140 GB of data.

Technical analysis also found that TAO had acquired the management authority of a large number of communication network equipment in China with the cooperation of several large and well-known internet enterprises in the US before the attack began, which made it easy for the NSA to continuously invade the important information network in China.

Aiming at Northwestern Polytechnical University, TAO used 41 types of weapons to steal the core technology data including key network equipment configuration, network management data, and core operational data. The technical team discovered more than 1,100 attack links infiltrated inside the university and more than 90 operating instruction sequences, which stole multiple network device configuration files, and other types of logs and key files, the source said.

It was found that 13 people from the US were directly involved in the attack and more than 60 contracts and 170 electronic documents that the NSA signed with American telecom operators through a cover company to build an environment for cyberattacks, according to the source.

The Global Times also learned from the source that TAO has used 54 jumpers and proxy servers in the network attack against Northwestern Polytechnical University, which were mainly distributed in 17 countries such as Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine, 70 percent of which are located in the countries surrounding China, such as Japan and South Korea.

Apart from the cyberattack, the US has also conducted surveillance of Chinese mobile users, illegally stealing their text messages and wirelessly locating them, which seriously endangered China's national security and violated the personal data security of its nationals, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday, urging the US to immediately stop its wrongdoings.

"What I want to stress it that, cyberspace security is a common problem faced by all countries worldwide. The US, with the world's most powerful cyber technology, should refrain from using such advantages to steal secrets from other countries, and should instead participate in global cyberspace governance in a responsible manner, and play a constructive role in maintaining cybersecurity," Mao said.

For a long time, the NSA has been carrying out secret hacking activities against China's leading enterprises in various industries, governments, universities, medical institutions, scientific research institutions and even important information infrastructure operation and maintenance units related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

A latest cybersecurity report released by Anzer, a cybersecurity information platform, on June 13 showed that the US military and government cyber agencies have remotely stolen more than 97 billion pieces of global internet data and 124 billion phone records in the last 30 days, which are becoming a major source of intelligence for the US and other "Five Eyes" countries.

a new vulnerability attack weapon platform deployed by the NSA, which experts believe is the main equipment of TAO, and it targets the world with a focus on China and Russia. The US' move raised wide suspicions that the country might be preparing for a bigger cyberwar, experts noted. 

Source link

 

 

RELATED ARTICLES

Over 2,700 cyber attacks launched against China, Chinese security company 360 found

In the past few years, China has detected at least 40 high-level overseas hacker organizations and more than ...

UN Security Council to confront growing threat of cyber attacks

The UN Security Council on Tuesday is set to hold its first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, addressing ...

Beijing’s health code system cyber attacked from overseas: officials

Beijing’s online health code checking system, Jiankangbao, was hit by cyber attacks from overseas during its usage peak ...

Latest report reveals US intelligence agency 'black hand' behind global cyber attacks

The US military and government cyber agencies have remotely stolen more than 97 billion pieces of global internet ...

Related posts:

China captures powerful US NSA cyberspy tool

 An empire of lies 

 

 Exclusive: Report reveals how US spy agencies stol...

 

Artemis I launch canceled amid NASA chief hyping ‘space race’, as China's top space contractor CASC reveals new launch vehicle able to send Chinese to Moon by around 2030

Accusing China of "occupying the moon" exposes the America’s ambitions to monopolize space   A NASA helicopter flies past th...

 

 OTHERS

Hacker saves the world. Teaches you hacking.

 

David Bombal 1.14M subscribers

Learn hacking from Marcus Hutchins - the man who saved the Internet from the WannaCry ransomware. He saved the NHS. He saved countless companies. He was seen as a hero, but was charged by the FBI for his past. He now teaches you how to hack networks so you can protect companies and yourself from malicious actors.