Lankan suspect arrested over Taiwanese bank hack

• $ 1.1 million transferred to an account in BOC and $ 59 million to others in the US and Cambodia
• Lankan nabbed while withdrawing Rs. 80 m on top of Rs. 30 m previously taken
• Police say more arrests to be made 

By Chathuri Dissanayake

An investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into last week’s Taiwanese bank hacking with links to Sri Lanka has led to the arrest of one suspect.

The breach in the Taiwanese Far Eastern International Bank resulted in $ 1.19 million being transferred to two Sri Lankan bank accounts. 

The suspect, who was arrested in Colombo on Friday, had already withdrawn Rs. 30 million from the account, and was arrested when an attempt to withdraw another Rs. 80 million was made, a top police official told Daily FT. 

The money was transferred to an account in Bank of Ceylon (BOC).

The suspect has been remanded till Wednesday, while the police are on the lookout for the second suspect, CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekera said. More arrests are expected during the week, he said.



BOC officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Taiwanese bank had reported a breach in their system triggering transactions up to $ 60 million into three accounts in Sri Lanka, the United States and Cambodia, local Taiwanese media reported.

According to the Focus Taiwan News Channel, the country’s Premier Lai Ching-te has called for a review on Taiwan›s information security by relevant agencies after the system hack in Far Eastern International Bank.

According to Taiwanese media reports, although the transactions triggered by the hack totalled $ 60 million initially, the bank expects to reduce losses to less than $ 500,000 due to the international assistance received.

However, the bank is still not able to determine the origin of the malware, but has stated they are certain the computer virus used to attack the bank›s transaction system was a variety never spotted before.