Cybersecurity needed
Editorial

Cybersecurity needed

Dec 20, 2021, 3:12 AM
OpinYon Editorial

OpinYon Editorial

Writer

ONCE again, the vulnerability of the online banking system has been tested -- and found wanting -- in the recent Mark Nagoyo hacking scandal involving the unauthorized transfer of funds from BDO Unibank to accounts in UnionBank, and the disappearance of the money.

Operators going by the name Mark Nagoyo, obviously an assume name, succeeded in defrauding some 700 depositors of BDO and the bank itself, which has since started to reimburse its victimized clients.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is in the thick of a probe into the financial scandal, which has dogged the banking system for so long.

In this recent scam, the modus operandi is to hack individual bank accounts of BDO depositors, skimming from P25,000 to P100,000 each, and transferring the money to private multiple accounts with UnionBank. The funds were later withdrawn and used to buy Bitcoin, it was ascertained early in the investigation.

Initial conjectures bolstered the theory that this was an inside job with personnel from BDO and even UnionBank involved, but the latest report from the NBI suggest that this is not so.

Vic Lorenzo, chief of the NBI cybercrime division, said based on their experience and on how the money heist was executed, they are not inclined to believe that it was the work of an insider. This is because the scam was so sophisticated that it could be executed without the help of insiders in the bank.

The NBI is currently on the trail of 4 to 6 individuals who are suspected of involvement in the money crime.

While the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Bankers Association of the Philippines and BDO are enjoining depositors to change their passwords and secure their accounts -- which responsible depositors are already doing -- the better thing to do is for the banks to invest more in cybersecurity systems.


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