Bank Of Valletta Resumes Most Of Its Services After Yesterday’s Cyberattack
Bank of Valletta has resumed most of its services following yesterday’s cyberattack.
In a statement, BOV confirmed that customers may once again make use of its services through its branch network, ATMs, internet banking, mobile banking and by making use of their BOV cards when effecting purchases. However, payments to third parties have not yet been activated.
“The resumption of services follows rigorous overnight testing of the bank’s IT systems which were successful,” BOV said. “The bank once again wants to reassure its clients that customer deposits and customer accounts were in no way affected by this cyberattack. This unfortunate incident proved that the contingency plans in place and the preventive measures taken by Bank of Valletta were appropriate and that these measures safeguarded the bank, its customers and shareholders.”
Yesterday, BOV suspended all of its services after it was informed by the Security Services that it had fallen victim to a cyberattack. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said around €13 million had been transferred out of the bank via false international transactions that were intended for the UK, the USA, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
The bank realised there was a problem at the start of the business day during the daily reconciliation exercise of international transactions. Shortly afterwards, the Security Services confirmed with the bank that it had been the victim of “an extremely elaborate” cyberattack.
Within half an hour, BOV asked its correspondent banks in the four aforementioned countries to block the transactions and to reverse any payments that could have already been carried out.
Cover Photo: BOV
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