Hyderabad police commissioner tells banks to protect public money

Hyderabad: City police commissioner C.V. Anand on Thursday said banks are responsible for safeguarding public money from the dangers of online banking.

He was speaking at a meeting convened by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in view of the recent hacking case of Mahesh Bank in which Rs 12 crore were fraudulently diverted. Representatives from 51 urban cooperative and other banks in the state were educated on the safety measures.

There is a need to put in place sufficient cyber security measures by all banks, the commissioner said, highlighting the lapses committed by the management of Mahesh bank.

“There was a lack of focus and will to invest on deploying firewalls, intrusion prevention and detection systems, anti-phishing systems, segregated system networks and virtual LANs, and avoiding usage of common user IDs and passwords.”

The commissioner explained to the banking community on how the 23 accused entered the database through phishing mails, trojans and key-logger software.

He further elaborated on the police department’s two-month long extensive investigation that resulted in recovering Rs 3 crore.

He said that in such instances, the criminal liability will be with the banks as it would be a breach of trust.

K. Nikhila, regional director of RBI Telangana, and T.K. Rajan, chief general manager, RBI, enlightened the bank representatives during the session on the need for a series of cyber drills with the participation of banks and regulators to smoke out vulnerabilities and to keep first responders sharp.

“Banks must rev up efforts to combat the growing cyber threat. We are in the process of improving cyber security across the country,” they explained.