CybersecurityBangladesh central bank governor resigns after discovery of $81 million cybertheft

Bangladesh’s central bank governor, Atiur Rahman, resigned on Tuesday after $81 million was stolen from the bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It was one of the largest cyber-heists in history.

Rahman told Reuters that the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, had accepted his resignation.

The Financial times reports that between 4 and 5 February hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank and transferred $81 millio from its account at the New York Fed to casinos in the Philippines.

A dy before he resigned, Rahman said the central bank did not inform him about the heist, and that he learned of it a few weeks later from reports in the media.

“I resigned and the prime minister accepted it,” Rahman told Reuters.

After reports appeared in the media, the Bangladesh central bank said that the hackers had tried to withdraw $951 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but the other transactions were blocked after a typo in one of the instructions raised alarms.

A Philippines senator looking into the suspected money laundering scheme said that more than $30 million of the stolen money was handed over in cash to a Chinese man in Manila,.

The New York Fed has stated that its systems were not breached, and it has been working with the Bangladesh central bank since the theft was discovered.

Security experts said that the incident has already led other banks and businesses to review their own networks for indications of vulnerability, and examine whether these networks have already been breached.