Malta Largest Bank Shut Down Operations Following Cyber Attack

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Feb. 14 (SEE) - Malta's largest bank was targeted by a cyber attack yesterday, with hackers attempted to withdraw 13 million euros, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.

Bank of Valletta which accounts for almost half of Malta’s banking transactions, shut down all of its operations after hackers broke into its systems and shifted funds overseas, closing branches and ATMs, and suspending mobile and Internet banking and internal email. Its website also went offline.

Prime Minister Muscat told parliament that 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 added that the attack was detected soon after the start of business on Wednesday when discrepancies were noticed during the reconciliation of international transactions.

Muscat explained that what happened impacted the economy and caused problems abroad for credit card holders who needed to make payments, such as to hotels.

Muscat said the Bank of Valletta was also considering how to resume its operations gradually to make sure that such an attack could not be repeated. He told lawmakers that depositors’ funds had not been touched.

“The money did not come from people’s (accounts) and the amounts have been traced,” he said.

Reuters reported that the bank earlier told customers that their accounts and funds were “in no way impacted or compromised” and that it was working to resume normal services.

Maltese banks have in the past reported cyber attacks but this was the first time that a lender had to shut down all of its operations as a result.