The Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank was attacked by cyber fraudsters by hacking the online banking system of the bank to transfer Rs 11.55 crore to multiple bank accounts.
According to reports, the fraudsters hacked the mobile banking application of a customer of the bank’s Halti branch in Chamba district and withdrew the amount of Rs 11.55 crores, which was later transferred to 20 different bank accounts.
However, Managing Director of HP State Cooperative Bank Shravan Manta stated, “ The customers’ money was safe and all funds transactions had been put on hold.”
The State Cyber cell stated that the incident occurred on May 11 and 12, but the matter only came to light on May 14 as, due to a bank holiday, the bank was not able to receive the transaction report from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a complaint was immediately filed at Shimla Sadar police station and the case has been transferred to cyber crime branch .
Deputy Inspector General of Police (Cyber Crime) Mohit Chawla said, “Investigations are underway and a team from CERT-In — the nodal agency for responding to cyber security cases — would reach Shimla on Saturday and join the probe, experts are trying to ascertain how the bank’s security was breached”.
(With input from PTI)
