Cosmos Bank cyber fraud case: Pune court convicts 11 in which hackers siphoned off more than Rs 94 crore

A court in Maharashtra's Pune district has convicted 11 people in the Cosmos Bank cyber fraud case, in which hackers siphoned off more than Rs 94 crore through a malware attack over a period of two days in 2018, police said on Sunday. The judicial magistrate (first class) on Saturday sentenced nine of the accused to four years' imprisonment and two others to three years and imposed a fine on them, an official said.

The accused were convicted of charges under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, he said. At least 18 persons were arrested from different parts of the country in connection with the fraud that was executed over a period of two days in August 2018.

As per the case details, hackers stole information of rhe Cosmos Bank's VISA and RuPay card customers through a malware, attacked the SWIFT system (a vast messaging network banks used by financial institutions) and siphoned off more than Rs 94 crore on August 11 and 13, 2018.

The hackers had attacked the banks' ATM switch server and withdrawn Rs 78 crore from various ATMs in 28 countries and another Rs 2.5 crore was taken out within India. In another attack on August 13, the hackers again fraudulently transferred Rs 13.92 crore to a Hong Kong-based bank using the proxy SWIFT system. Out of Rs 13.92 crore, the police managed to recover Rs 5.72 crore, it was stated.