Heist of the Year: Cyber Thieves Took Out 16 Crore from Nainital Bank’s Noida Branch – Know How They Did It

In a major cyber heist, over ₹16 crore was stolen from Nainital Bank’s Noida branch after its servers were hacked, and the money was transferred to 89 different accounts. Cybercriminals gained access to the bank’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) channel by hacking the manager’s login credentials, allowing them to siphon off ₹16.5 crore between June 16 and June 20.

The bank’s IT manager, Sumit Kumar Srivastava, discovered the discrepancy when the balance sheet was being tallied for June. According to Mr. Srivastava’s complaint filed at the cyber crime police station, the heist came to light during a regular audit on June 17, when a shortage of ₹3,60,94,020 was noticed. Despite attempts to reconcile the balance sheet, the missing funds could not be accounted for over several days, revealing the extent of the fraud.

“A case has been registered by the IT manager of the Nainital Bank. He said that about ₹16.5 crore was withdrawn by hacking the manager’s credentials and the bank’s server. This happened between June 16 and June 20. The money was transferred to 89 accounts. A team has been formed to probe the matter,” ACP Cyber Crime Vivek Ranjan Rai told NDTV.