Sonali Bank loses millions to hackers

The Sonali Bank has incurred a loss of Tk 20 million last year after hackers breached its vulnerable “password and risk management system”. "The bank lost $250,000 due to the hacking of one of its accounts' password last year," said M Aslam Alam, Secretary of the Bank and Financial Institutions Division. "This means there has been huge flaws in the management of passwords of the bank’s accounts and there has been no risk management," he said. Finance Minister MA Muhith, who was also present during the revelation, too expressed dissatisfaction over the bank’s security system. The state-owned commercial bank lost Tk 164 million due to a burglary in Kishoreganj. RAB later in Jan recovered almost the entire looted amount. In Nov 2012, it had come under fire for lending Tk 25 billion to an upstart company, Hall Mark Ltd, as it was considered almost impossible to recover the money. Dwelling on the security lapses, Aslam referred Kishoreganj burglary incident and pointed out that nobody had even thought of it. He advised all-round security for the bank, including strengthening its online system to save the bank from such a threat. To protect the bank from any such future risk, he suggested overhauling of the bank’s security, including its online security system. Speaking about the bank's security risks, Muhith said, "The bank's internal management system has to be strengthened to restore people's trust on it," acording to a news agency.