Polish banks have been hit by hackers who planted a malware infection which appears to have come through compromised servers at the Polish financial regulator KNF – responsible for enforcing security standards in the banking industry.
Polish banks hit by Hackers
The banks spent the last week searching for the hackers who broke into the financial institutions in an incident that looks to be three months old, according to Polish media.
The hackers stole no money. Instead, they exfiltrated large amounts of unidentified encrypted data, according to news reports.
“What we know so far is this is likely the most serious incident in the history of Polish banking industry,” said Lukasz Olejnik, a security and privacy consultant and a researcher at University College London.
The identity of the attackers is unknown. The hack is being called the most serious attack in Polish history, a sophisticated operation requiring a well-resourced group to design and deploy new malware that hit servers and employees.
Due to the fact that no money was stolen, Polish media is reports that Polish officials suspect the attack was a foreign intelligence operation. The Bad Cyber report traces the malware to an external JavaScript file on a KNF webserver.
The KNF website went offline last week. After the it returned, spokesman Jacek Barszczewski told Polish media that “work out of the office is being carried out unimpeded.” It’s unclear if the two events are related.
Although systems were likely compromised since October 2016, the banks detected an intrusion only about a week ago when they spotted large amounts of outgoing encrypted data and unknown encrypted executables on several workstations.
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) acknowledged the attack in public on Friday but has released little information.
The malware acted as a RAT, a remote access tool, that allowed complete control over the targeted machines and their data.
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