Vietnam bank hackers tried to send money to Slovenia

[HANOI] Vietnam's central bank said on Tuesday a failed hacking attempt on Tien Phong Bank (TPBank) using the Swift messaging system sought to fraudulently transfer 1.2 million euros (S$1.86 million) to a Slovenian bank late last year in one transaction.

The thwarted transfer on Dec 8 was the only hack attempt via Swift detected by TPBank and no other Vietnamese lenders, or the central bank itself, have been affected, Le Manh Hung, head of the State Bank of Vietnam's Information Technology Department told Reuters in an interview.

Interpol was immediately informed of the Dec 8 attack, Mr Hung said.

A third-party vendor that TPBank had used to connect to the Swift money transfer system was possibly infected with malware and its servers were based in Singapore, Mr Hung said, adding he did not know the identity of the vendor.

REUTERS