THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas cyber security team looking into the hacking of nearly 700 accounts at BDO Unibank in December is looking to wrap up their probe within the month.
At Monday’s Senate inquiry by the Committee on Banks and Financial Institutions, BSP Director Mhel Plabasan assured senators they intend to render their report to the Monetary Board before the end of January.
According to Plabasan, they could not as yet divulge what really happened in the incident, explaining it was “complex and requires a cyber forensic investigation.”
He stressed that as of now, most of the 700 accounts were “restituted” or “already reimbursed.” BDO had outright promised, as soon as the hacking was reported, that bank account holders victimized through no fault of their own – or did not do anything and yet simply lost their monies – will be promptly restituted.
Meanwhile, Plabasam recalled that at a hearing last December, they were told there were account holders at BDO “where funds were withdrawn and transferred to the account of a certain Mark Nagoyo at Union Bank.”
At one point, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Banks panel, noted that if the BSP is capable, why was it that there are still victims of hackers? “Kung may kakayanan ang BSP, bakit marami pa ang nabibiktima ng hackers gaya niyan na nagamit ang credit card sa muntik na pag order ng halos isang milyong pisong halaga ng pagkain sa isang online delivery app nung nakaraang taon? At tanong din, kung ano ang garantiya na hindi ito mauulit [If the BSP is capable of fighting hackers, why are there still so many victims, like the case of a credit card used to order almost a million pesos worth of food from an online delivery app last year? What’s the guarantee this won’t be repeated]?” the senator asked. He was apparently referring to his own case, when he fell victim to such fraud.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes