Security experts now believe there is involvement of North Korean fraudsters in the spate of breaches involving SWIFT network across the globe. In the three recent attacks on banks, researchers working for the digital security firm Symantec said, the thieves deployed a rare piece of code that had been seen in only two previous cases: the hacking attack at Sony Pictures in December 2014 and attacks on banks and media companies in South Korea in 2013. At that time experts have blamed those attacks on North Korea, though they have not provided independent verification. Symantec researchers said they had uncovered evidence linking an attack at a bank in the Philippines in October 2015 with attacks on Tien Phong Bank in Vietnam in December and one in February on the central bank of Bangladesh that resulted in the theft of more than $81 million. The attacks have raised alarms in the global banking industry because the thieves gained access to SWIFT system, which is used by 11,000 banks and companies to move money from one country to another.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the attempted $1 billion electronic theft at the Bangladesh central bank has expanded to as many as 12 more banks that all use the SWIFT payment network. Security firm FireEye, investigating the hack, has been contacted by numerous other banks, including some in New Zealand and the Philippines. While most of the attempted transfers in the original heist were cancelled, some $81 million was sent to the Philippines and subsequently laundered through casinos. The SWIFT organization in a statement said that some of these reports may be false positives, and that banks should rigorously review their computing environments to look for hackers
