The House Science Committee will launch an inquiry into the cyber theft of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York via a global financial messaging network, Reuters reported Monday.
Krishna Das and Jonathan Spicer write the committee plans to examine the New York Fed’s handling of the fraudulent electronic financial transactions conducted through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication system in February.
The report said the N.Y. regional office of the U.S. central bank initially blocked 35 international wire transfer requests due to improper message formats, according to the report.
The branch rejected 30 of the requests that were resubmitted by cyber thieves using the SWIFT system and cleared five requests amounting to $101 million, but later declined a $20 million request due a spelling error, according to the report.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) asked the N.Y. reserve bank for information about the cyber heist.
SWIFT said it aims to implement new cybersecurity program and urged banks to adopt measures to protect financial data they share with each other.
