HACKERS DISCLOSE DATA ON NSA OPERATIONS AGAINST BANKS IN MIDDLE EAST & LATIN AMERICA

According to the latest hackers’ report, the US National Security Agency has managed to intervene in the financial systems of Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.

Photo: Reuters / Jim Urquhart

Hackers of the Shadow Brokers group have revealed documents, according to which US intelligence could intervene in the financial systems of countries of the Middle East and Latin America, the Reuters news agency reported.

The latest release of the group, named ‘Lost in Translation’, lists Qatar First Investment Bank, Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange and Tadhamon International Islamic Bank as allegedly compromised.

As a cyber security consultant, Shane Shook, who helped banks investigate violations of their SWIFT systems, told the news agency, the hackers’ release included a computer program code, which can be adapted by criminals to break into servers of the interbank financial messaging system in order to monitor the activity of credit institutions.

Reuters noted that some documents, released by the hacker group, have an official seal of the US National Security Agency. The agency cannot confirm their authenticity. A subdivision of the US intelligence service has not commented on the information so far.

The SWIFT press service told Reuters that at present they do not have evidence of illegal access to the system.

According to Shane Shook, the data, published by hackers, may be a reason for new frauds like those that took place in March 2016 in Bangladesh, when computer trespassers tried to get $951 million out of the account of the country’s Central Bank. The most part of the operations were blocked, but $81 million was transferred to the accounts in the Philippines. Investigators suspected that hackers from Russia, Moldova and Kazakhstan were involved in the theft of money.

The AP news agency noted that the US National Security Agency could have compromised work of the Dubai office of the EastNets Company, which specializes in combating money laundering and provides financial services.

The founder of the Comae Technologies Company, Matt Suiche, who monitored the Shadow Brokers in 2016, wrote in his blog that the US National Security Agency managed to hack thousands of computers and accounts of EastNets employees. According to the company’s head, the purposes of US intelligence officers were banks in Kuwait, Bahrain and Palestine.

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