Mediterranean Bank Hacked to Steal Cash
Return To ArticleBank of Valletta which accounts for almost half of Malta’s banking transactions, had to shut down all of its operations on Wednesday after hackers broke into its systems and shifted funds overseas. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told parliament the cyber attack involved the creation of false international payments totaling 13 million euros ($14.7 million) to banks in Britain, the United States, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
The funds have been traced and the Bank of Valletta is seeking to have the fraudulent transactions reversed. Muscat said the attack was detected soon after the start of business on Wednesday when discrepancies were noticed during the reconciliation of international transactions. Shortly after, the bank was informed by state security services that it had received information from abroad that the company had been the target of a cyber attack.
