Details Emerge on Global Bank Heists by Hackers - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/business/dealbook/details-emerge-on-global-bank-heists-by-hackers.html
Computer security researchers briefed on the investigation into one of the attacks, on the Bangladesh Bank, raised several theories about the crime, including the possibility that groups from Pakistan and North Korea may have been spying on the bank. Other analysts investigating the attacks said there were striking similarities between the “multiple bespoke tools” used by the hackers in both the banking cases and the attack on Sony Pictures in 2014.
The latest breach detailed by Swift in a letter to its users on Friday occurred at a commercial bank that appeared, according to a leading online security firm BAE Systems on Friday, to be located in Vietnam.
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Also on Friday, two forensics investigators at BAE Systems outlined evidence that suggested similarities between the Bangladesh heist and a 2014 attack against Sony Pictures that law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the United States have traced to North Korea. That year, Sony released the farcical movie “The Interview,” which poked fun at North Korea.
The investigators pointed to specialized, identical tools — including identical encryption keys, file names and a highly unusual data deletion technique — that were used in the attack on Sony Pictures, the Bangladesh central bank and the Vietnamese bank.
However, people briefed on the actual investigation at the Bangladesh bank, who would speak only on the condition that they not be named, said that while the same tools were present inside Bangladesh’s systems, suggesting any link between that heist and the North Korean hackers would be premature.