Pakistani’s Vain Bid to Hack Canara Bank Website

Mumbai: The website of Canara Bank, one of India’s leading nationalised banks, was hacked on August 2 by a Pakistani hacker calling himself ‘Faisal’.

Canara Bank confirmed that the hacker failed to access any data or transactions.

According to a statement issued by the bank, the hacker defaced the bank’s home page and also tried to block certain online transactions. Within hours of the attack, the Reserve Bank of India, alerted all banks to compare their hourly reconciliation of payment emails by comparing outward messages with SWIFT confirmations. Among other control measures, RBI in its letter told banks to implement time restrictions for access to SWIFT and currency-wise message limits. SWIFT is the global financial messaging service banks use to move millions of dollars every day. Canara Bank, meanwhile, has confirmed that the hacker failed to access any data or transactions.

Market analysts state that the cyber attack was reminiscent of a similar attack last year when the websites of two private and a public sector bank were hacked.