How A Printer Lost A Country $81,000,000

#heist #hacker #cybercrime

On the morning of February 7th, 2016, director of Bangladesh Bank Zubair Bin Huda, takes the elevator and gets off on the 10th floor. He walks briskly into the most restricted part of the building, his mind fixated on the problem that has plagued his office for the past couple of days – the printer. This isn’t just any printer: It’s an automated machine hooked up to the bank's software, designed to print transaction reports instantly, automatically, and 24/7.

This printer was a big deal, and the empty tray represented a huge problem. After troubleshooting the issue for two days, the printer finally comes back online! But then, a backlog of more than expected reports started rolling out, and it was soon obvious that something wasn’t right. The New York Federal reserve received instructions to drain their entire account. Panic erupted as employees rushed to stop the transaction, but it was likely too late. – Bangladesh had just lost 1 billion dollars.