Skip to main content

Billion dollar bank heist foiled by one spelling mistake

Proofing your work is important. We’ve known that since school days, but you would think when you have the chance to swipe a billion dollars in an international bank heist, you’d make sure you dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. That didn’t happen in the case of one hacking group though, which made away with a comparatively paltry $80 million because they made a spelling mistake when transferring the ill gotten gains.

The hack in question took place at the start of February and targeted Bangladesh’s central bank, which was breached in a manner that did not initially raise any suspicion. The hackers then used that official channel to contact the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and began issuing transfer orders that sent millions overseas.

Recommended Videos

Requests successfully directed over $80 million to accounts in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, with further planned payments of over $850 million. However one $20 million payment request was flagged by the routing bank, Deutsche Bank, when it was noticed that the name of the recipient organization, Shalika Foundation, was spelled “fandation” (as per the Guardian).

Related: Department of Defense recruits white hats for ‘Hack the Pentagon’ program

With that request flagged, all others were halted as a routine security measure and it was soon discovered that these transactions were anything but approved by the Bangladeshi bank. Some of the sums were also noted for their surprising size, though individually that may not have been enough to manually vet the transfers.

The Bangladeshi bank holds billions of dollars with the Federal Reserve and could potentially have seen much of it disappear if this spelling mistake had not triggered a further inquiry.

Now, more than a month on from the hack, officials at the Bangladeshi bank say that they have been able to recover some of the funds, but that there are still many millions outstanding. Moreover, it’s still not entirely sure how the bank was hacked in the first place.

The bank sees it as extremely unlikely that those who perpetrated the hack will ever be caught, suggesting that this was a highly successful digital attack. Although the nationality of the thieves is unknown, they are thought to originate from outside of Bangladesh.

Suggestions from security analysts indicate that the hack would have required intimate knowledge of the Bangladeshi bank’s internal systems, so it’s possible someone on the inside was either involved, or that the bank’s information was otherwise compromised.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
The robot takeover comes another step closer — at Amazon
An Amazon robot working inside one of the company's warehouses.

Amazon is close to having more robots operating inside its warehouses than humans after the e-commerce giant announced this week that it now has more than a million robots working at its facilities around the world.

Over the years, Amazon has spent billions of dollars on the development and deployment of warehouse-based robots, which handle an array of tasks once performed by human workers.

Read more
This Lenovo ThinkPad laptop is over $1,400 off — hurry while stocks last!
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 Intel laptop on a white background.

Now's an excellent time to take advantage of laptop deals from Lenovo, which has slashed the prices of a wide range of devices for its Black Friday in July sale. Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops are up to 45% off, and here's one of the most interesting offers available with such a discount — the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 at $1,440 off its estimated value of $3,199, so you'll only have to pay $1,759. That's an excellent price for this fantastic productivity tool, but you're going to have to push forward with your purchase as soon as possible because stocks may run out at any moment.

BUY NOW

Read more
Early Prime Day deal: Samsung’s 27-inch Odyssey G3 at its annual low price
Samsung Odyssey G3 gaming monitor on desk with keyboard and headset.

If you're ready to upgrade your monitor, this Samsung deal over at Amazon just might be your best bet. The 27-inch version of Samsung's Odyssey G3 is $130 right now, a full $100 off its regular $230 price and its lowest price of the year. It's a part of early Prime Day deals and a good sampling of what we can expect for the shopping holiday, which officially lands on July 8th. Tap the button below to see it for yourself or keep reading to see why we like this deal and why this should be your next monitor.

Buy Now

Read more