Symantec Warns: Another Hacker Group Targets SWIFT Users

A second hacking group has pursued to rob banks using deceptive SWIFT messages, Cyber-security firm Symantec Corp said on Tuesday. This is a similar approach that granted $81 million in the notorious February attack on Bangladesh’s central bank.

SWIFT is the messaging system that is the hub of the global financial system. Symantec said that a group named Odinaff has infected ten to twenty organizations with malware. These can be utilized to conceal deceitful transfer requests made over the messaging system.

Symantec’s investigation offered fresh insight into ongoing hacking earlier revealed by SWIFT. Gottfried Leibbrandt, SWIFT’s Chief Executive, notified customers last month about three hacks and cautioned that cyber attacks on banks are primed to increase.

Symantec and SWIFT have not named particular victims of Odinaff other than Bangladesh Bank. Most attacks, however, happened in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, and the United States, Symantec said.

In May, the company said it believed a group known as Lazarus executed the Bangladesh theft. The group was also accountable for attacks on SWIFT customers in Southeast Asia and the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014.

Lazarus sanctioned by nation state

The United States has accused North Korea for the Sony attack, though Symantec has not confirmed the Koreans were behind Lazarus. Nevertheless, the high level of sophistication of its work indicates connection by a nation state.

On the other hand, Odinaff seems to be a financially motivated criminal group and not a nation state, the company added.

Symantec said it believed that Odinaff is connected to the hacking group Carbanak. The group has been known to target merchant point-of-sale systems and banks since 2014.

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