Bank websites, mobile apps on hackers’ hit-list

Chennai: In what seems to be a major cyber security threat, hackers from Deep Web are now on the prowl targeting India-based banks, pulling down their websites, mobile applications and online services thereby disrupting their banking operations. Hackers are hitting websites, networks and apps of banks in a systematic and scheduled manner, cyber security experts said. Online banking sites of banks such as City Union Bank, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank and Vijaya Bank have been targeted by hackers for the past two days. According to the hit-list of the hackers from onion site (so named because they end with “.onion”, are hosted as Torhidden services – a completely anonymous way to host website) on Thursday they will target a mobile app of a leading private bank and on Friday, it will be the net banking of a nationalised bank.

“It could be a planned attack or a technical snag. But the attack hit-list accessed from the Deep Web hackers group indicates that the attack is scheduled, “ said J. Prasanna, a cyber security expert. On Tuesday, there was a denial of service on the site of City Union Bank and on Wednesday, TMB was impacted, he said.

“It looks like an attack but serious investigation is needed to confirm it,” he pointed out. Often, bank managements construe these issues as mere server problems, which may not always be true. According to S. Sekar, senior general manager, City Union Bank, the server of the bank was down on Tuesday because of heavy traffic. “Our Internet banking was not available during that time. There was adisturbance from outside. We killed the entire traffic to our servers and the issue was rectified,” he said.

The bank has contacted the IT service provider and is evaluating the reason behind the problem. “We have all the security measures in place and are checking the real reason for the problem,” he said. On Wednesday morning, TMB was targeted by the hackers. According to Arun Vasan , IT manager of the bank, the attack happened at the network level. “We got some disturbances around 9 am. By noon, we fixed one network and the rest will be fixed soon,” he said, adding that this was the first time the bank was facing a cyber threat like this.“More security measures will be taken after evaluating the problem,” he said. None of the banks has filed a police complaint so far.