‘No accounts affected in UCPB cybertheft’

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is looking into a cyberbreach wherein hackers were allegedly able to siphon off P167 million from government-owned United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) over the past four months.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the regulator is well aware of the reported UCPB incident and has been in close coordination with the bank since the early part of its investigation.

“UCPB is undertaking the necessary remedial measures to heighten cybersecurity, including collaborating with the National Bureau of Investigation for the investigation and eventual prosecution of the suspected criminals,” Diokno said.

The BSP chief said initial investigation findings indicate no financial losses or damages were incurred by UCPB accountholders in this particular incident.

Diokno said BSP is working closely with UCPB and other relevant law enforcement agencies as it remains steadfast in fully resolving the cybertheft.

“Rest assured, in pursuit of our cybersecurity agenda, we continue to collaborate and engage the BSP supervised financial institutions to ensure the safety and integrity of the financial system, as well as the protection of the financial consumers,” Diokno said.

For its part, UCPB, in a statement, said the bank continues to review and strengthen its information technology and security controls since the incident occurred last June.

“UCPB is investigating the incident in close coordination with the NBI and other concerned authorities. The bank would like to assure its stakeholders that clients’ funds were not affected by the incident,” the bank said.

The state-run financial institution said it remains to be a strong and profitable institution with a net income of P2.9 billion in the first half of the year.

Website bilyonaryo.com first reported the incident wherein Nigerian hackers were able to penetrate UCPB’s core system during an online security upgrade last June.

The bank’s corporate services and security group sought the help of the Cybercrime Division of the NBI after hackers reportedly managed to inject malware or computer virus that allowed them to see how the bank processed, sent and received cash online.

The NBI identified several suspects during the initial investigation, including two Nigerian nationals. One of them successfully withdrew more than P4.4 million in one day from various ATM terminals.

Apart from ATM withdrawals, the suspects were also able to perform bank transfers through online real time cash transfers via InstaPay, with the cash withdrawn immediately by the suspects.