Almost 650 private banking clients from Standard Chartered have had their bank statements stolen by a hacker in Singapore.
According to reports, the February statements of 647 clients were hacked into from the Fuji Xerox server which provides printing services to the bank. No unauthorised transactions due to this breach have been found.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataRay Ferguson, chief executive of Standard Chartered for Singapore said the confidentiality and privacy of other clients are of great importance and the incident is being taken very seriously. The Monetary Authority of Singapore is looking into the theft and considering whether ‘regulatory action against the bank is required.’
As the first incident of the sort for Fuji Xerox, the company’s CEO also confirms in a statement to the media that there was unauthorised access by a hacker into a server dedicated to Standard Chartered Private Bank. Bert Wong, CEO, Fuji Xerox Singapore said: "We share the Bank’s concerns on the theft of information on this system, and deeply regret the incident. A forensic team is also conducting a thorough review."
The Straits Times had reported that police found the laptop of the alleged hacker, James Raj Arokasamy, hidden under the pseudonym "The Messiah", however it remains unclear how the documents were hacked and how they landed on Raj’s computer.
The Association of Banks in Singapore commented that this Standard Chartered case is a testament to the importance for banks to ensure their IT infrastructure is secure and protected.
The incident also spotlights the concept of outsourcing data management and the vulnerability for confidential information in the onus of third party data centres. The other three leading private banks in Singapore, UBS, Credit Suisse and Bank of Singapore, commented that they keep the printing of their statements in private, so as to keep all confidential data within the internal infrastructure of the bank.
Outsourcing printing jobs is common practice for banks, but according to experts, many banks build their own private data centres that store their core functions in-house, and only outsource less sensitive secondary data.
This is the second scandal in Singapore private banking in recent months. Exclusively reported by PBI, a former advisor of Credit Suisse siphoned off an estimated $13 million from one of their client’s accounts last month. Industry experts say such occurrences may threaten Singapore’s status as a secure private banking hub for Asia.
