Investigators are getting closer to the people that robbed Bangladesh's account at the US Federal Reserve bank in NY

Apr 18, 2016 19:54 GMT  ·  By

Authorities in Dhaka, Bangladesh say they've discovered at least twenty foreigners involved in the cyber-attack that allowed hackers to steal $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank at the end of February this year, BDNews24 reports.

Bangladesh investigators claim that persons from Sri Lanka, Philippines, China, and Japan, are involved in the cyber-heist, but have declined to name any names not to make the suspects panic and possibly lose their trail.

The one billion bank heist that almost was

At the end of February, the cyber-security world was rocked by the news of a huge cyber-incident during which hackers attempted to steal $1 billion from Bangladesh's bank account at the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

A typo stopped the massive heist, but not before hackers stole $81 million and transferred them to a bank in Manilla, Philippines, from where they were spread to local casinos where the money quickly laundered.

Bangladesh and Philippines officials managed to recover a large sum of the money, but not all. If this wasn't bad enough, the heist got international fame after a security researcher investigating the heist mysteriously disappeared after making comments that the Bangladesh central bank showed disinterest for security protocols.

Police is also looking for someone on the inside

While the researcher was found one week later, the scandal had made enough waves that the bank's governor and two deputy governors were forced to resign.

Authorities later found malware on the bank's computers, which was sending data to computers in Egypt. Investigators suspect this is how attackers got hold of the Bangladesh's central bank authentication credentials for the US Federal Reserve account.

Despite saying they now have 20 international suspects in their sights, Bangladeshi officials don't rule out local hackers and cooperators just yet, since it's almost certain at least one Bangladeshi was involved with knowledge of the bank's internal procedures.