Vietnam's central bank probes hacking attempt on Tien Phong

[HANOI] The State Bank of Vietnam is probing an attack by hackers on Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank after receiving details from the lender on Monday, a central bank official said.

The regulator directed its banking technology department to look into the hacking incident, Le Thi Thuy Sen, media official at State Bank of Vietnam, said by phone. The central bank will provide more information later today, she said.

The attack took the form of a fraudulent transfer request for more than 1 million euros (S$1.5 million), which came through a third-party service the bank used to connect to the Swift interbank messaging system, Tien Phong said in an e-mailed statement.

The bank said the request wasn't processed and the attack didn't affect the Swift system or the bank's transactions with customers.

Hackers may have installed malware into the third-party software which the bank used to use to connect to the Swift system, Tien Phong said, citing information from Swift.

The bank has stopped using the third-party vendor's service and now deploys its own technology with stronger security to connect directly with Swift, it said, without identifying the technology company.

The suspicious transfer request took place in the fourth quarter of last year, and didn't result in any losses for Tien Phong, the lender said.

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