HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) announced it had stopped hackers from attacking the SWIFT system, reported VietnamPlus.

The hackers were attempting the same technique they had used in the recent heist at the central bank of Bangladesh.

TPBank said it detected suspicious transactions worth more than one million euro (US$1.13 million) through illegitimate SWIFT messages in the fourth quarter of last year.

It immediately requested relevant parties to halt and control transactions to prevent losses, the bank said.

"The attack did not cause any losses and did not affect the SWIFT system in particular and the transaction system between TPBank and its customers in general," TPBank said in a statement.

The bank also said security must be made the top priority of all banks, with a focus on malware, which can affect financial activities on a global scale.

The bank said it used the outsourcing service of a partner to connect with the SWIFT system through the partner's server based abroad.

SWIFT recently warned that hackers may infect the partner's SWIFT payment services software with malware.

TPBank said it had discontinued using the outsourcing service and switched to a new system which connects directly with SWIFT and has a higher level of security.

The new system would meet the increasing transaction demands of the bank and prevent attacks in the future as it would not be affected by the malware. — VNS