Perpetrators of BOV cyber attack identified by international police

International police have informed Bank of Valletta that police abroad had informed the bank that they had established who was behind a cyber attack on the bank earlier this year.

Back in February the bank seized its operations after it became aware of an attack which was later revealed to have resulted in the theft of €13 million.

Speaking to the state broadcaster, Bank of Valeltta chairman Deo Scerri said that the bank had yesterday been informed who was behind the attack and has appointed a team of international lawyers to help it recover the funds.

Scerri said that so far €10 million had been recovered by the bank. He added that he was optimistic that the remaining funds would also be returned to the bank, save for a small amount of less than €1 million which appears to have already been spent.

Speaking in parliament after the attack, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the money was transferred out of the bank in a number of transactions to four locations – the United States, the United Kingdom, Czechia and Hong Kong.

The bank resumed full operations a few days later, following rigorous overnight testing of the Bank’s IT systems. A number of files were reported to have been found hidden in the bank’s systems, possibly intended for the hackers to retain the ability to re-enter the banks systems.