Hackers withdrew about €100 million from the accounts of one of France’s banks
Kyiv • UNN
Credit Mutuel Arkea reported a loss of about €100 million due to fraudulent transfers. Customers’ accounts were not affected; an investigation is ongoing.
French bank Credit Mutuel Arkea said on Thursday that it had lost about 100 million euros ($112.61 million) and could not yet say how much of those funds it would be able to recover after a cyberattack this week. It is a rare case of a successful robbery of a major financial institution. Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
The attack on the French bank on Wednesday came after $6.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the Binance exchange last week, as well as a wave of cyberattacks on internet-connected refrigerators in Europe.
The attackers used an account belonging to Credit Mutuel Arkea to carry out "fraudulent transfers" to other banks. This could have allowed the funds to be converted into cryptocurrency through specialized platforms.
At the same time, the breach did not affect customers’ accounts. A bank representative said on Thursday that, although the financial institution had temporarily suspended some operations for security reasons, causing delays in certain transfers, customers’ assets were not affected.
The representative also denied media reports that the online banking subsidiary Fortuneo had been the entry point for the attack. According to him, there had been no intrusion through Fortuneo, and neither the subsidiary nor its customers’ accounts had been affected.
Credit Mutuel Arkea declined to name the external service provider whose platform was used during the attack. At the same time, it said it had informed the European Central Bank, French banking regulators, and the prosecutor’s office.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said its cybercrime unit had received a complaint from Credit Mutuel Arkea on Wednesday and immediately launched an investigation into an organized attack on an automated data-processing system.
Although successful cyberattacks on major financial institutions are rare, financial regulators around the world have stepped up warnings about the risks of cybercrime, particularly amid the development of artificial intelligence.
Credit Mutuel Arkea, headquartered in Brittany, is a French cooperative banking group with more than 5.8 million customers and assets totaling 211.5 billion euros.